IQLR (International QL Report)

Vol.3 Issue 6 $5.00
March - April
1994

International QL Report

MIRACLE’S NEW MIRACLE

SUPER GOLD CARD

IOLR.....

International QL Report is published by:

IQLR IQLR

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USA GREAT BRITAIN
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PUBLISHER: Robert Dyl, Sr.

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Issue 1 15 April
Issue 2 15 June
Issue 3 15 August
Issue 4 15 October
Issue 5 10 December
Issue 6 15 February

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IQLR is produced using a Sinclair QL computer equipped with a
Super Gold Card, Minerva ROM, Hermes co-processor, QIMI
and Keyboard-90 interfaces. Masters are printed using Hewlett
Packard DeskJet 500 and IIP LaserJet printers. The software
used to produce the text of IQLR is Text87 Plus4.

Contents.............

International QL News
Editor SE (Part 3)

Mini- Editorial

QIndex

Correction

Spreadsheets/ DeskJet 500
QL Abacus/ MSDOS Lotus
ALT(ernatives)

Accessing Printer_ DAT
Lonely Joker IT

An Author’s Response
Products / HP DeskJet Owners
Going Online with Your QL
QBOX-USA BBS

Quick Mandelbrot Ill
Miracle in Newport II

The Town Crier

Advertisers.........

QBOX-USA

DIGITAL PRECISION LTD
ERGON DEVELOPMENT
MECHANICAL AFFINITY
GRANGE TECHNOLOGY
DILWYN JONES COMPUTING
JOCHEN MERZ SOFTWARE
TF SERVICES

QUBBESOFT P/D

W.N. RICHARDSON & CO
PROGS

MeDAC

J.D. HANNAM, INC.
DIGITAL PRECISION LTD
MIRACLE SYSTEMS LTD

This column is designed to bring together new and/or
changing developments within the QDOS community.
the information contained here has been reported to
IQLR by individuals and/or suppliers who desire to
keep you informed as to their recent activities.

MIRACLE SYSTEMS LTD - Osbaldwick, York, Great Britain

The biggest story of the year (so far) has been the recent launch of Miracle’s SUPER GOLD
CARD. aon | shown at the Scottish Workshop in Edinburgh and at the International QL
Meeting in Bielefeld, Germany, it is being received with wild enthusiasm.

The SGC contains 4M of fast 16 bit Ram, a 25MHz 68020 processor (reported to be 3 times
faster than the Gold Card), a fast REAL Centronics printer port, 2 disk drive ports (will
operate 4 disk drives), a virtually crash-proof clock and a socket to optionally connect SV.

Miracle Systems are NOW taking orders for the SUPER GOLD CARD and expect the first
deliveries to be made in three to four weeks . Please note their advert on the back cover for
additional information

PROGS - Veltem, Belgium

Have announced the release of their much acclaimed LINEDESIGN V2, a total rework of
their popular LINEDESIGN. Faster, more fonts, improved text handling facilities, the entire
program has been improved.

Joachim and Nathan have prepared a demo version capable of doing everything
LINEDESIGN V2 does, the only differences being that the PROGS logo will always be
printed on top of the drawing you produced and you get only a few of the fonts available. The
demo can be obtained by sending a formatted 3.5" disk and return postage to IQLR.

Their second new offering is PROFORMA. A programmers library, it gives C (C68)
programmers the ability to write programs using the PROGS Font and Raster Manager. This
is the dedicated graphics library used for the development of LINEDESIGN V2. It supports
a vector graphics and can be used from Assembler. Pricing for PROFORMA is
BEF .

ERGON DEVELOPMENT - Reggio Emilia, Italy

Has announced that DILWYN JONES COMPUTING is now their UK distributor for their
entire line of software. In addition, they have announced major price reductions and
improvements to their software, so that the programs now run on the QXL, QVME and with
Minerva’s second screen and with any screen resolution (QL, EGA, VGA or SVGA).

INTERNATIONAL QL NEWS - (CONT'D)

JOCHEN MERZ SOFTWARE - Duisburg, Germany

This prolific software house is at it again, with the release of 3 NEW packages. The first is a
brandnew version of our old friend QMON/JMON with an addition. Now adapted for the
pointer environment, it recognizes the various stack frames and cache handling of the
different processors 68000 to 68040. JMON is a job- monitor that has its own moveable
windows.

The second package is a major upgrade, QD Version 6 now has selective automatic tab
compression/expansion and permanent line/column display plus many, many more
improvements.

The third is a Tetris like game titled DOUBLEBLOCK, with various levels of difficulty,
differently shaped items ana a two player option. Please note their advert for more
information.

J. D. HANNAM, INC - Placentia, California, USA

Tim Brunk president of J. D. HANNAM, INC has announced that they have recently moved
into new offices. Please be advised that while their 800 telephone number (800 228 0308)

remains the same, their Fax number has been changed to : 714 961 0491. Please note their
NEW address in their advert elsewhere in this issue.

OBox-—USA

B= 910-254-9878 B=

24 hours a day, 3007120072400 baud

(a new high speed modem, up to 14400 baud will be online soon)

QBox-USA is a BBS set up by OL enthusiasts for QL enthusiasts.

The sytem runs entirely on a Sinclair QL. We maintain a link (Fidonet>
with European BBS's that carry QL related message areas. With QBox-USA
North American QL users can keep in touch with our Fellow QL users in Europe
and keep up with the latest developments for the QL and QDOs.

We are currently carrying the Following message areas:
INTERNATIONAL QL, MINERVA, QUANTA and QBOX.

There are also file areas that contain many programs available for download.
Just a few of the Files available are: QTPI, QEAX, Zip/Unzip, QLlerm, QUCIF
and many more! There is no charge to use QBox-USA other than normal phone
call charges. Please give QBox-USA a try!

We look Forward to your call!

produced using Page Pestgner F

EDITOR SE carrs)

Massapequa, New York, USA - Bob Gilder
"An Overview, Tutorial and some Ramblings "

Before going ahead with the third installment of this
tutorial, I would like to offer an apology to our readers of
IQLR and Digital Precision Ltd., for failing to review one
additional upgraded file included in the latest version of
The Editor Special Edition software; the EDT_charset.

At the beginning of summer I set up a spare QL with Gold Card, disk drives and a 12 inch
RGB analog monitor in a cool room located at the North-East section of my home to take
advantage of the cool off-shore sea breezes. | received the latest edition of The Editor S.E.
shortly after 1 had made this move. When I booted up Editor, and typed in a few lines, I was
amazed at the clarity of the text output on the 12" monitor as compared to the output
from my 14" RGB monitor, used in my main computing area. Only when I switched back to
my first set-up in early fall and booted up my original Editor program, did I realize that
something was not right!

Then I Booted up the latest version of Editor S.E., Read in some text and with amazement,
the text appeared to ‘light up’ the monitor screen. The upgraded version of The Editor S.E.
sports a NEW Characterset - and it is very easy on my eyes. You must see it to believe it,
regardless of various screen and ink color combinations on the monitor screen - It is great!
So... Check your EDT charset file by comparing the byte count of your original EDT_charset
to the upgraded file. MY original Charset file contained 1242 bytes and the new Charset file
contains 2418 bytes.

Thank you Freddy!! The EDT charset file alone is well worth the cost for the upgraded
version of The EDITOR S.E.

Within Part 2 of this series, outlined were some of the text commands for paragraph
Reform and Right and Left line justification. When editing any file within the Editor
environment and the JR command is used to justify text to the right margin, you must be very
careful when editing the last line of a paragraph. Normally, the last line of a paragraph is
shorter than the rest of the paragraph.

Let us say, for example, the last line in this paragraph contains only 3 words and one of the
words has an error in it; the word is spelled wrong. You place the cursor on the offending
character and delete it and then you replace the proper character in the word. Then then you
move the cursor down to the start of the next paragraph and all of a sudden the last line
of the above paragraph justifies to the right - the first word remains stationary, the second
word moves to the center of the text and the last word is smack against the right margin
boundary. You then move the cursor up to that line in a frenzy and reformat that line with
the delete keys, move the cursor off that line and again right justification takes over and again
does just what Justify Right should do, it justifies the same words again as it did before!

Rule of the thumb: If you must edit a short line of text when Right Justification is in
effect, either before or when your cursor is on that line, enter the JL (Justify Left) command
and all will be OK! - or if the offending line has already right justified the line, then place the
cursor at the beginning of that line and enter the PR (Paragraph Reform) command and

EDITOR S/E - (CONT’D)

allow it to settle back at the start of the left margin. - or you can press ENTER after the last
word of that line and the current position of each word will remain stationary. If you opt to
use ENTER, remember you are creating an additional blank line between this paragraph
and the following paragraph.

Another similar problem to the one above can occur when editing a line(s) which were
formatted within a Temporary Left margin atmosphere (Temporary Left margin is set by an
ALT-TAB combination under the cursor) and text is Right Justified. Again as outlined above,
set justification to JL.

When using the Temporary Left Margin (ideal for indenting text, such as emphasizing
examples, leaving a blank area for graphics or screen dumps, etc.) and you require Right
Justification of text, first set up the ALT-TAB key combination and with the cursor still at
that point, enter the JR command and all text will justify right regardless of how many lines
of text are typed into your file. When text indenting input has completed press the ENTER
key twice, which signals Editor that you are now using the normal margin setup as before
the temporary margin was established.

While on the subject of Justification, there are two more commands that justify text, JM
(Justify Middle) and JC (Justify Center) - there is a difference between both of these
commands even though both commands appear similar to each other - JM_ will place text
such as a heading at mid-point between the current left and right margin settings. JC is
positioned on the current line and the text is moved to the mid-point of that line, one half the
distance of the right margin width - the indent and left margin is ignored .

For users of Spellbound The Editor is compatible with this spell checker program. To
activate Spellbound enter the key combination of CTRL-SHIFT-O. You MUST use this
combination because CTRL-O wiil print out an ’O’ with a bar on top and this will not signal
Spellbound to awake! Once The Editor recognizes Spellbound’s presence, Editor allows
the normal Spellbound commands to be activated using the normal key combinations of
CTRL-A, CTRL-E, CTRL-W, CTRL-D, CTRL-R and CTRL-1 thru 5.

Incidentally, I use Spellbound only after my files are completed - I enter CTRL-C to leave
Editor and then load in Spellbound and then EXEC Filebound. At Filebound’s request |
enter in my input and output filename and awake Spellbound and allow Filebound to perform
spellchecking .

When the spelichecking process has completed (I should say, ERROR checking), 1 READ
the spellchecked file into Editor. Then I press F7 (or SHIFT-F2) which sets up the start of
an empty FIND string.

F//

Notice that there is a null string between both slash characters, which is available for the
user to fill in that space with a character or string. Before filling in the Find string, place the
cursor at the top of the file. I will then enter an ’*’ character between both slash characters
and then press ENTER so that Editor can locate the first spelling error by placing the
cursor on the power (*) character or hat’ as Spellbound calls it. The offending word is
carefully looked atto insure that this word is part of the Spellbound dictionary or the
word is actually mis-spelled. The ’hat’ is then deleted and the spelling is corrected if

EDITOR S/E - (CONT'D)

necessary. The routine is repeated by either pressing F7 or SHIFT-F2, ENTER, until all
errors are corrected. Using the F/*/ string will insure that you will not miss any words
containing ‘*’. The completed spelled checked file is then Written to disk twice, using
an additional character at the end of the original filename, such as EDSE3 and EDSE3a
(the actual name of this particular file).

When writing the second filename to the media as a backup file, I activate the ’F8’ key or
SHIFT-F3 (repeat previous command) and the first filename appears on the command line at
the bottom of the Editing screen. Then the ALT-RIGHT cursor key combination is pressed
which places the cursor at the right side of the last filename character and then I will enter,
say, ’a’ for my second filename, ‘EDSE3a’. This is a very fast operation!

I normally Write to disk after completing between 60 to 70 lines of text, which means that I
must overwrite my text on disk. The only caution 1 would like to state is that during any or
all occurences of overwriting a file to a media, Editor will ask if you wish to OVERWRITE
the file with (Y/N)?. If you are sure that you have entered the correct filename, enter either
’Y’ and press ENTER or for faster action press ENTER. Be careful and make sure that the
filename is correct before you overwrite a file. Entering °N’ or ESCAPE will allow you to
abandon the Write command and provide you the time to insure that you will write the file to
disk with the proper filename instead of overwriting another file.

At this point I would like to introduce the Cursor Control functions:

Move one character - Normal Left or Right cursor

Delete one character - Combination of CTRL-Left or -Right cursor

Move one word at a time - Combination of SHIFT-Left or -Right cursor

Delete one word at a time - Combination of CTRL-SHIFT-Left or -Right cursor

Move cursor to END/BEGINNING of line - Combination of ALT-Left or -RIGHT cursor
Delete entire line from beginning or end - Combination of CTRL-ALT-Left or-Right cursor
Move one line at a time - UP or Down cursor

Delete entire line with cursor anywhere on line - Combination of CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-Left
cursor

Move line down - combination of CTRL-Down cursor or ENTER

Delete characters from right to left - Combination of CTRL-Left cursor

Move cursor to top or bottom of screen - Combination of SHIFT- Up or -down cursor
Scroll screen up or down - Combination of ALT-Up or -Dowr cursor

Scroll entire page up or down - Combination of SHIFT-ALT-Up or -Down cursor
Starting paragraph of current page - Combination of CTRL-ALT-Up cursor

Last paragraph of current page - Combination of CTRL-ALT Down cursor
Temporary Left margin - Combination of ALT-TAB

Section 6.1 through 6.2.7, pages 24 through 31 explains the above Immediate commands in
detail; also, the first page of the Editor HELP file can provide assistance. The majority of
the intermediate commands outlined above provide the Editor user with extremely fast
editing features, especially when paging through one screen after another. I use this one for
adding page numbers to all footers in my text files. After page one footer has been numbered,
I move the up cursor up three lines, then the combination of SHIFT-ALT-Down cursor three
times places the cursor right on the footer line of the next page at the proper page number
column position. This is repeated until all footers are numbered. It only takes several seconds
to enter each footer number this way.

EDITOR S/E - (CONT'D)

Cursor Controls? ti i
a ihe a Ta The line delete commands are the
ord 1: SHIFI/+ SHIFI/+ — CIRL/SHIFT/+ © CIRL/SHIFT/s only immediate commands I sh
7 y y
eae ab ee a ce, MARNE away from - they delete to fast for
bine CTRL EXTER CIRL/* (col 1) my liking. ! prefer deleting one
oh ieee word at a_ time because sometimes a
Screen poges SHIFI/ALT/t SHIFIVALT/4 ______ Tesp Horgin _____ phrase will pop into my head and |
ee Cee lemgiah See can resurrect the remaining line.
Tele eat Insert node F5; Redrou; resize screen F4; SHIFI/FS However, for those of you who like
xecute; re-execute Command group F3; F2 2 of a
EG\t § cxecute lost Comeand group SHIFT3 to gamble, you fo delete the ling
Edit & execute Lost Find/Exchange SHIFI/F2 and if it bothers you that perhaps it
Re-execute Last Find/Exchange CTRL/F2 aC ] j
Stort Command processing ENTER; Inlerrupt/hal t Commands ES? was the wrong thing to do, just enter t
Force gartoe collection SHIE/ES he following: F3, UD
mand format:
Commands may be entered singly or in S55 "y° separated 1 i
fl ruaber. bay pref x cy Conand erigrtip © {4 la rented ce a repeat cobnit UD, Undo last deleted line - and as
Al group is specitiad by enclosing the comands in brackets though you were a magician, the
ie deleted line appears as the line was

originally written.

There is another beneficial use for the UD command. A line of text can be prepared,
such as a footer and can then be deleted using the delete line command. This line MUST
be the last Undo deleted line which can now be used as if it were a block insert command.
When a line of page is completed, place the cursor on the footer line and issue the UD
command and the deleted footer line will appear on that line. This process can be repeated
throughout the entire text file provided that you DO NOT issue any other delete line
commands before you finish adding all of your footers to your text.

There is another UNDO command which will undo current changes to a line. In other
words, if you substitute words within a line and you now wish to change that line back to the
original text, issue the "U’ command from the command line and the original text will be
displayed as long as the cursor is not moved off from that line.

Multiple column text:

Earlier in this series, I had mentioned that double-column text wasn’t difficult to produce
within the Editor environment. First, you must produce the text file! The next step is to
determine how wide each column of text should be. When I print out multiple column text,
it is usually 38 characters wide for both columns.

The margins spanning the text are set at 80 characters in width, with a four character space
between each column. The printer is set for PICA pitch, 10 characters per inch (usually the
default pitch for printers). Three or four columns of text can be produced on the screen,
however, the printer must be set for 12 to 20 characters per inch in order to produce the
proper printout from the printer to accommodate 8 1/2 inch printer paper.

The following Command file will produce two, 62-line columns of text for an approximate
124 line text file.
file: 2COL_cmd

T SI1 SL1 SR38

BTK BH RP PR

T GL63 BS GL124 37CR
BE T 42CR BM BH

EDITOR S/E - (CONT’D)

The first line of the 2COL_ cmd file starts with T (Top of file; cursor at line 1, column 1). It
should be mentioned that the text should not have a header! The header should be added to
the text AFTER the text has been processed to double columns, otherwise if a header is
present when processing the text, the start of the second column _ will be on the same line as
the header. See NOTE below.

LINE 1: SII sets the left indent margin to column 1; SLI sets the left margin at column 1;
SR38 sets the right margin at column 38 (If you prefer to have your text columns smaller,
change SR38 to another smaller figure).

LINE 2: BTK sets the Block to type column; BH will highlight the completed block; RP
repeats the next command PR, paragraph reform, and all text within the file will be
formatted at 38 characters wide.

LINE 3: T cursor to line 1, column 1; GL63 move the cursor to line 63, column 1; BS Block
start marks the current cursor position; GL124 moves the cursor to line 124, column 1; 37CR
moves the cursor to column 38 on line 63.

LINE 4: BE Block end is marked at column 38, line 124, (the completed block should now
be highlighted ); T cursor moves to column 1, line 1;42CR moves the cursor to column 43;
BM moves the block of text to column 43, line 1, BH extinguishes the highlight from the
block.

Vithin Port 2 of this series, I combination under the cursor) and text

If you intend to key in the 2COL_cmd
file, type it in exactly the way it
appears in the text. It will work!

Write it to disk using W.2COL cmd.
Before activating the command file
for processing 2 column text, place
the cursor at the top of file, column
1, line 1; then type on the command
line, RC.2COL_cmd, ENTER and
Editor will oblige by converting 80
column text into two neatly formatted

outlined sone of the text commands for
paragroph Refora and Right and Left
line justification, Unen editing ony
file uithin the Editor environment ond
AR conaond is used to justify text to
the right worgin, you ust be corefut
then editing the lost line of o
porogreph. Horaally, the last line of
@ paragraph is shorter than the rest
of the paragraph.

Let us say, for example, the last tine
in this paragraph contains only 3
words ond one of the uords bas an
error in it, the word is spelled
wrong, You place the cursor on the

is Right Justified. Again as outlined
above, set justification to A.

hen using the Teapory Left torgin
(ideal for indenting text, such as
eaphasizing examples, leaving a lark
area for groghics or screen dumps,
etc.) ond you require — Right
Justification of text, first set up
the ALT-TFB conbination of keys and
vith the arsor still at that point,
enter the JR cosmond ond all text vil
justify right regardless of hou sony
Lines “of ‘text are typed into your
file. Unen text indenting input has
completed press the ENTER key tuice,

offending character and delete it ond uhich signals Editor that you ore
replace the proper charocter in its using the roreal acrgin setup os
place, Then then you move the cursor before the tempory margin vas

Incidentally, you have the option of | ene ery hen te tent let
setting line justification (JL or JR) ine of the above paragraph justifies Uhile on
before activating the command file. |e ee mean
JL justifies text left for a ragged a

right appearance while JR provides uniform columns of text.

columns of text.

the subject of
there are tuo _ nore

Now you can add a_ header to your text by placing the cursor at the top of file and press
ENTER twice and the text will move down two lines, providing space for a header or you can
set up a block for the entire double column text and move the text to a desired line.

To set up a block: Move the cursor to the beginning of the text with the command T. Mark the
block start at this position (BS) and then move the cursor to line 63 (GL63) and place the
cursor to column 80 (79CR) or (ALT-Left cursor) and mark the end of the block (BE). Now
move the cursor to the start of line 63 using the combination of ALT-Left cursor. Move the
cursor down several lines and move the block to this position (BM). The block will be

EDITOR $/E/ - (CONT’D)

positioned several lines below the original block providing space at the top of your text file
for the addition of a header.

NOTE: The above 2COL cmd file and the 3COL_cmd file below, can be altered using files
that do contain a header. All you have to do is change all occurrences of the command T to
GL(line number) for the first line of your text file such as GL4 and the Header will remain
as it was when written into Editor and all text below will be processed to a multi-column
format. 1 did not mention this before because I wanted you to go through the exercise of
setting up blocks of text and moving them around the screen.

After adding the header at the top of the file, you could also place a footer at the file bottom
if necessary. After your single page file is completed, you have the option of writing the file
to your media with either of the following commands: W.2COLtext! or BW.2COLtext!

If you write your file to disk using the command ’W’, any additional text not processed
within your text file will also be written along with the double column processed text. This
assumes your original text file had more than 128 lines of text.

Setting up a 66 line block of text (assuming 11 inch length of paper) and saving the file with
*BW’ will ONLY write the block of 66 lines of text onto your media.

NOTE: If you want tochange the length of the text columns, change each occurrence of
the command GL63 to whatever length of text you require. Remember that the start of the
first line of text for the second column must follow the last line of text on the bottom line of
column one.

OK! We have processed a full page of double column text suitable for producing a flier, or
perhaps a short newsletter with multiple pages stapled or clipped together. However, if
we intend to produce documentation with multi-column output the margins must be
widened to accept binding for 3 or 4 hole punching on the left hand side of the page.

Again, we have to think this out. If our pages will be printed one after another in numerical
order (the back of each page blank), then we have to widen the left-hand margin by four
columns; SI5; SL5; and reduce both column widths from 38 characters to 36 characters;
(SR40. On the third line of our original 2COL cmd file we must add an additional
command, 4CR between the commands GL63 and GL124 which will place the cursor at
column 5 for the start of the block. On that same line 37CR must be changed to 39CR. On the
fourth line of our original cmd file, we must change 42CR to 44CR.

file: 2COLodd_cmd

T JR SIS SL5 SR40

BTK BH RP PR

T GL63 4CR BS GL124 39CR
BE T 44CR BM BH

The finished product of the modified 2COL_ cmd file will display 2, 36 columns of text with a
four column left-hand margin suitable for hole punching. I’ve titled this cmd file
2COLodd_cmd.

Now we must think again! If you intend to produce two column output for pages with text
on both sides of each page, then we have to make additional changes to our _cmd file. Why?

10

EDITOR S$/E - (CONT’D)

Page 2, the back of page J, requires the right-hand margin to be lengthened four columns
wide and both left-hand margins set to column one for hole punching (a mirror image).
So, for those of you interested in producing high quality, multi-column text output, let us
make the following changes to our original 2COL_cmd file and when completed call it
2COLeven_cmd.

file: 2COLeven_cmd

TSI SL1 SR36

BTK BH RP PR

T GL63 BS GL124 35CR
BE T 40CR BM BH

By now, you should understand all of the changes made to the commands in the
2COLeven_cmd file. If you are not sure why these modifications were necessary, study all
three 2COL_cmd files, then work with them and I am sure that you will fully understand why
these changes were necessary.

Listed below is an additional command file which will produce 3 columns of text. You_ will
notice that the first four lines are identical to our original 2COL_cmd. I have added 3
more command lines for processing a third column of text. Also, take notice that I have not
changed the right margin setting. To properly print out 3 columns each, 38 characters
wide, with an 80 column printer,1 placed a printer control command at the beginning of
the text to output 17 characters per inch (Compressed pitch) which is actually quite
readable.
file: 3COL_cmd

T S11 SL1 SR38

BTK BH RP PR

T GL63 BS GL124 37CR
BE T42CR BM

GL125 BS

GL186 37CR BE

T 84CR BM BH

LINE 5; GL125 Go to line 125, BS start 3rd block.

LINE 6: GL186 Go to line 186, 37CR move the cursor to column 38, BE mark block end.
LINE 7: T cursor at top of file, 84CR position cursor at column 85, BM move block to
column 85, BH remove block highlight.

The following table will provide data for use when setting up margins and text columns within
the 2COL and 3COL command files. The printer control sequences outlined in this table are
for Epson/IBM compatible printers.

PITCH Number of characters CHARS printed PRINTER Control
per inch 80 col printer Code Sequence

PICA Pitch 10 characters per inch 80 characters ESC+P

ELITE Pitch 12 characters per inch 96 characters ESC+M

MICRON Pitch 15 characters per inch 120 characters ESC+G

COMPRESSED pitch 17 characters per inch 136 characters ESC+CTRL-O (on)
COMPRESSED pitch 17 characters per inch 136 characters ESC+CTRL-R (off)

11

EDITOR S/E - (CONT'D)

When ELITE Pitch and COMPRESSED Pitch are set simultaneously, printer output will be
20 characters per inch - 160 characters ESC-+M, ESC+CTRL-O

r x 7 5678
To the left, is an actual printout of 123456789012345678901 2345678901234
five different font pitches within the This is PICA Pitch 1 characters per
double column format.

; 123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345
The Pica pitch format displays 38 This is ELITE Pitch 12 characters per inch,
characters per column for text
four hater spaces eee and 42345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
both columns as per 2COL cmd. This is MICRON Pitch 15 characters per inch, 8 column

12345678901 23456789012345678901 2345678901 2345678901 234567890123

The Elite pitch format displays
He nich) format displays’ 45 This is COMPRESSED Pitch 17 characters per inch, 8@ coluan

characters per column for text and

six. charactersibetycen‘borkcplimns 123456789012345678981234567890 1234567890 1234567896] 2345678901 2345678901 234

The Micron pitch format displays 56 This ia a coebination of ELITE Pitch and COMPRESSED Pitch simultaneously
characters per column for text and eight characters between both columns.

The Compressed pitch format displays 63 characters per column for text and ten characters
between both columns.

The combination of Elite and Compressed format displays 74 characters per column for text
and twelve characters between both columns.

Note that the 74 character display per column is quite easy to read. Using font pitches from 12
characters to 20 characters will allow up to double the amount of text you can print onto a
single sheet of paper.

When your double column format is expanded from 84 columns up to 160 columns on the
screen, you will find that you must page right beyond the first 84 character screen onto a
second screen. Don’t worry about this! The whole text file can be written to disk as it
appears without any problems at all. Using the proper printer control character sequences
will advise your printer to change the original font pitch to another font pitch.

If you plan to use several different font pitches within a single text file, regardless of single
or double column format, have found that problems can occur during printing. Some times
the printer gets rattled unless you enter ESC P (Pica) followed by the Escape sequence for
the different pitch. This is how my Panasonic KXP1124 printer will acknowledge
Compressed pitch for printing after, say, Elite pitch: ESC P ESC CTRL-O. The default
pitch on my printer is Pica, 10 characters per inch.

Now that you have gone through the exercise for processing two or three column text from
an 80 column text file, you should page down (ALLT-SHIFT-Down cursor) to the bottom of
at multi-column text file. Below this portion of processed text you will notice quite a few
blank lines,

As an example, you have READ into The Editor, a four page text file for processing to a
two column format. The 2col_cmd file is executed and all text has been first processed to 38
columns. Column two has now been set up as a block of text with the block column
command (BTK) and moved from it’s original position to another position at the top of the
file, next to the first column of text, with four spaces between them.

12

EDITOR S/E - (CONT’D)

All lines between line 63 and 124 are blank, because we had to use a column block for the
second column of text. When a column block is moved anywhere within the Editor
environment, it leaves a blank area on the screen, even though there is text at line 125 and
downwards. Below is a very simple solution to this problem if you intend to move the
remaining text upto line one for processing the remaining text to a multi-column format.

First, WRITE your processed text to disk by setting it up as a block of text as described
earlier in this section. After it is saved to disk, DELETE the block with BD. Enter the
following on the Command line: F3, T BTL BS GL124 BE BD

F3 places an active cursor on the Command line; T top of file; BTL Block Type Line; BS
Block Start; GL124 Go To Line 124; BE Block End; BD block Delete.

If you would like to see the lines of text highlighted before they are deleted, add the BH
command after GL124. When the Line Block as accomplished it’s task of deleting the 24 lines
of text, all text from line 125 and below, will move up to Line 1. Now you can activate the
2COL cmd to process your additional text into two column text.

For three column text, change the command from GL124 to GL186.

Within Part 2 of this series, 1 is Right Justified. Again as outlined mate mistakes ip spelling) | READ in

outlined some of the tert cousands for
paragraph Reform and Right and Left
line justification. When editing any
file within the Editor esvironment and
‘IR command is used to justify tert to
the right margin, you must be careful
when editing the last line of a
paragraph. Mormally, the last line of
a paragraph is shorter than the rest
of the paragraph.

above, set justification to Jb.

When using the tempory Lett Margin
(ideal for indenting text, such as
eaphasiting examples, leaving a blank
area for graphics or screen dumps,
etc.) and you require = Bight
Justification of tert, first set up
the ALT-TAB combination of keys and
with the cursor still at that poiat,

the spellchected file into Editor.
Then I press 07 (or SHIPY-P2) which
sets up the start of a PIND string.

u/

Hotice that there is an empty string
between both slash characters which is
avaiting for the user to fill that
space with acharacter or string. T

A thought about writing your own Command files such as those outlined above:

I would venture to guess that a large majority of QL users had started computing with either a
ZX80, ZX81, Timex TS100, The Spectrum or Timex 2068. The reason for this mention is:
Whithin some of the user manuals for those computers, one page displayed the full pixel
grid for the monitor screen. 1 duplicated that page and used the grids for set-up of text and
bar graphs. We can produce a grid 84 characters wide and 24 characters in length or
purchase graph paper. Using the above cmd files we could then plot all of the three 2Col
_cmd files through their various stages. I haven’t used this method on the QL; J just offer our
readers this thought - to make the job of writing command files a lot easier.

For additional information on multi-column CMD_ files, refer to the COLUMN cid file on
your original EDITOR disk. The November 1992 issue of Sinclair QL WORLD, page 6,
*Troubleshooter’ by Bryan Davies, outlines a command file listing and provides an
explanation for Bryan’s double column cmd_file.

At this time I would like to discuss in detail some of the commands which we used in the
multi-column command files above. I am sure that the CR command as written may cause
some concern as to whether a mistake was made by using 37CR to place the cursor at column

EDITOR S/E - (CONT’D)

Note that the command GL124 written prior to the command CR37, which places the cursor
on line 124, column 1. Since the cursor is occupying column 1, the cursor must move 37
characters to the right placing the cursor at column 38. 1 + 37 = 38. Whenever we use the T
(top of file), B (bottom of file), and GL with a line number, the cursor is always placed at
column 1.

Many times I am asked about the Editor margin commands, such as: "Why don’t the text
follow the margin commands I have set up when I load a file into Editor?”. First of all, you
have to understand that The Editor wasn’t designed to do so since the program will accept
many different types of files other than ‘raw’ text files. When loading in machine code
programs using, say with the RU command, the file will spread out to 255 characters on
some of it’s lines. Assembly language listings loaded into Editor are allowed to be displayed
in the format in which they were written as well as SuperBASIC listings which do not like to
have their lines broken.

Set up the margin requirements, either before or after a program is read into The Editor;
then issue the justification command you require, such as JR or JL and then command
Editor to format the complete file with RP PR, which will repeat a paragraph reform until
the cursor reaches the end of the file. All displayed characters will be encased within those
margin boundaries you have previously established.

While we are discussing commands such as SI, SL, SR and CR, a thought comes to mind.
How does the new user of The Editor know when a number is placed before or after a
command? He/She can look up the command in the manual which provides examples of all
of the Editor commands. Or He/She can PRESS the combination of SHIFT-F1 or F6 and the
second help screen will appear on your monitor.

Please note that the commands which do not have a single or double asterisk or a single
asterisk and a question mark following a command will work properly when a number is
required and is placed before the command, such as 37CR.

* Number must follow the command; ** String must follow the command,
*? String is optional

Use your the EDT_Help files - they are just a key stroke away when they are needed!

The BASIC FILE Commands as

. . Spall Movement cuds Big Movement cads Find/Exchange cads.
displayed in the EDT_HELP WO Heat Tne T Topo file F Find string 22
‘ior Line B Botton of file E Exchange strings 1?
Screen, page 2. CR One chor right L_Lost end point Quliflers....
Th A f a One chor left eo he of file B Search bockvards
is con i Stort of Line OC Go to char $ =U Hatch string is uord
h ae, 7 Section Three o CE End of line CL Go to line? Query before exchange
these series. lam sure that there | 8 stort of Block Go to page Text Case is significont
are many Editor users out there 4 Seen oreo 8 §6eKo a
: r = begin
who can do many things with Cit tanker point OT Top of file bal
The Editor that are not Bloc bie 6 ext reat ie net t from device #4
R ee 5 s rt shorter ex i
outlined within the user’s BT Type Chor, Kol, Line RO Reod document file ff
manual which would be M4 he om RU Read unforaatted file +
* ‘stor RC Read commands file tt
beneficial to readers of IQLR. BE Hark end Ui Write text to device t?
I would be more than willing a inet otter diticcads t rh text to printerts
* < le! it ite text to device
to continue on with the : BH Hove Block O Quit u/out sove BY Urite block to device tt
tutorial after Section Four is BU Urite Block $f — Quit vith save AF Append from device 3%

completed if you are willing to FeMmeRNL ily sesh
send in your favorite use for this Liner 24 Colt st Line counts 24
14

4? = String is optional

EDITOR S$/E - (CONT’D)

program and | will insure that your submissions would be published and you will receive full
credit for your contribution. Please, let us here from you!

Section Four will discuss using two Editors on the screen at one time, setting up ALT-Key
combinations for many commands which we use and an assortment of command usage. |
will illustrate how to print diskette labels within Editor and highlighting diskette labels with
printer graphics by accessing the printer’s graphics character set.

Readers can write to me directly at the following address: Robert Gilder, 69 Jefferson Place,
Massapequa, NY 11758, USA or if you wish to call by telephone: 516-541-2271.

MINI- EDITORIAL

Newport, Rhode Island, USA - The Editorial Staff

It’s that time of year again, this issue marks the
completion of Volume III, on to Volume IV with
more enthusiasm than we had when we launched
Volume I. With all the shows taking place this
year (including MIRACLE in NEWPORT II), with
the release of MAJOR new hardware items

and the promise of many, many, MAJOR new software releases no wonder we're so
enthusiastic.

We've been asked “why the absence of an Editorial in the past few issues” ? Simply put, when
we changed formats we added a number of new features that covered most of the ground we
formally covered in our Editorials, thus eliminating its need. We will however, from time to
time, print an Editorial when the situation warrants it, as we believe the information below
does.

As can be noted on page 2 of this issue, IQLR now has a European office which we hope will
make life a little easier for our UK and European readers. At the same time we have opened
an account with one of the UK’s leading banks, allowing our UK and European readers the
option to RENEW or SUBSCRIBE by making payment in Pounds Sterling (£) either by
Postal, Euro, Bank or Personal Cheque.

WORDS of THANKS - A personal word of thanks to Stuart Honeyball of Miracle Systems
who has acted as our agent in the UK and Europe for the past 8 months, and may we add that
Stuart undertook this task with NO financial gain or interest at all, just his belief that IQLR
was good for the QL community. Sorry it took so long Stuart, but they tell me that setting up
a trans-atlantic operation like this takes time. To you, goes our heartfelt thanks and gratitude.

A WORD of APOLOGY - We take great pride in the fact that "we have never been late with
an issue nor have we ever missed an issue’. It is our policy to ship all issues before the 10th of
the first issue month of the magazine. Well, last issue this was really streched to the limit for
some of our European and all our UK readers. We mailed on time, it seems that the UK
postal and or customs authorities held up our shipment for between 10 days and two wecks.
We guess they couldn’t believe that a publication for a Sinclair computer was coming from
North America. We are sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused our affected
readers.

LGHNNG

If you are using a QL in any shape or
form or with any accessory (including
the new Super Gold Card, Qxl, Gold
Card, Trump Card, ST/QL, Thor, PC
CONQUEROR, Minerva, TURBO, and
even the humble unexpanded
microdrive-only QL), you really should
be using LIGHTNING = SPECIAL
EDITION. If not, you are very severely
and unnecessarily (the program is
cheap) slugging your system's
performance. The superb LIGHTNING
SPECIAL EDITION is capable of both
automatically and very significantly
accelerating almost every aspect of Qt
operation - whatever it is you use the
QL for. “More than 10x is achievable
and 2x-4x is typical" (quoted from
page 24 of review in April '90 QL
World). The speedup ratio is virtually
independent of the system. However
fast or slow is your QL hardware,
LIGHTNING SPECIAL EDITION will
accelerate it much further. All recent
versions of our software are carefully
optimised for 16/32-bit processors,
without compromising 8-bit working.
The program has not got any adverse
side effects at all, and it fixes certain
malevolent (i.e. lock-up or corruption
inducing) anomalies. Installing it is a
fast, once-only operation that takes
two or three minutes and which
assumes & requires absolutely no
knowledge of programming or of
anything even remotely technical about
the QL: you are simply asked whether
you wish to speed up text, maths and
graphics individually, or everything.
Unless you have a very good reason,
opt for everything! Then LIGHTNING
SPECIAL EDITION copies itself onto
your boot-up disks, instantly modifying
their BOOT files. Now every time you
start up, full throughput acceleration is
automatically invoked and everything
goes much smoother and faster. In
case you think that this is too good to
be true, we quote verbatim the
concluding para of the Sinclair QL
World review: “I could not fault
Lightning Special Edition on
anything. It is a clear winner and a
best buy at £49.95". The program
includes a bundle of accessories (e.g.
change screen attributes including
character sizes, colours and fonts in
other programs - even in Quill, smooth
scrolling and much more) and tweaks
(vary maths and/or graphics precision,
a null device, a drain and much more).
Stop reading the manual where we tell
you to - at around page four - if simple
use is all that you want. The program
also includes 84 excellent small fonts
for use with PERFECTION SPECIAL

EDITION, PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHER
and other programs - a real bonus!
LIGHTNING SPECIAL EDITION includes
both a ROM (for plugging in at the
back of your QL - no screwdriver
needed) and a disk (or cartridge, if that
is what you specified). As some QL
hardware (QXL; either Gold Card for
speed reasons) is not ROM-efficient, or
you might have something already
plugged in (ICE, TK2 if not already on
your disk interface), you should opt for
the version of the program minus the
ROM for just £39.95: this is the GOLD
CARD VERSION. If you have two QlLs,
say one of them a QXL / (Super) Gold
Card and one “ordinary”, you should
go for the full LIGHTNING SPECIAL
EDITION, as you can use the ROM on
the second machine. Extra ROMs cost
£10 if ordered at the same time as the
program, else £15.

Ql) What programs benefit from
LIGHTNING SPECIAL EDITION (LNGSE),
and how much? Al) All programs,
including PC emulators, benefit.
Perhaps our PERFECTION SPECIAL
EDITION benefits most. interestingly,
the more competently an application is
implemented, the greater its expected
acceleration from LNGSE..... This is
because all good programs contain
very fast-working code: their only
bottleneck is the QL ROM, in which
they may end up spending a
proportionately large amount of time.
LNGSE cures the congestion. Q2) Why
didn’t DP build LNGSE into all its
programs? A2) It would be very
inefficient to do it that way: because of
multitasking, you'd pay for the
RAM-space over and over again, let
alone all the wasted disk space. Also,
LNGSE benefits all programs, not just
our ones. Q3) Does the QL “know” it is
running LNGSE? A3) No, and there is
no operating overhead either. And the
QL isn't “running” LNGSE in any sense
of the word. In its first and only tenth
of a second of life, LNGSE pages out,
using a door deliberately left open by
the Ql's forward-thinking designer,
large chunks of QDOS (AH, JM, JS, MG
and all Minerva operating system
variants) and replaces them with our
fine-tuned supercode. The door was
carefully designed so that even the
most errant programmer would not
abuse it. After that, the QL has no way
of knowing it has been “taken over".
Q4) I'm concerned about compatibility.
While I've heard only good reports
about LNGSE, I've read about other
products being involved in conflicts
with application programs. Aé4) Firstly,
LNGSE is not a replacement for the

AIM

whole of the ROM, only for some parts.
We have, therefore, not had to make
ad hoc changes to any of the many
good bits, in order to avoid copyright
problems. As explained in 3), we are in
fact using a route specifically designed
into the QL to enable ROM code to be
efficiently patched. Secondly, we are
very pragmatic about “improvements”
and bug-fixes: one man's bug is
another man's feature. Of course the
original ROMs had faults - but most of
these are benign and well-known (DP
can supply an official bug-list to
customers). To fix most such bugs
would be unwise, as a lot of existing
software probably either takes some
advantage of, or side-steps, them. If
you fix the bugs, some of this software
is liable to fail, perhaps in subtle ways
{all the more dangerous). It is quite
unproductive apportioning blame in
such cases - it is irrelevant whose fault
it is: if the end-user gets software
problems, it is simply VERY BAD NEWS
for everyone. LNGSE avoids these
pitfalls by accurately emulating ail
harmless QL anomalies (much harder
than fixing them - we have to foresee
all outcomes of the oddities). To give
but one example, the QL's line-drawing
routine often draws lines the wrong
length (>1 pixel out). LNGSE could
easily fix this (in fact, LNGSE provides a
software switch to opt for correcting)
but we default to emulating this
anomalous behaviour. If we did not,
many grid-drawing programs would
end up producing odd-looking results,
as their authors have understandably
had to set line lengths “wrong” in order
to get the right length on-screen.
Consequently, LNGSE is - yes - fully
compatible with everything. Q5) Is
LNGSE a compiler? A5) No - TURBO is.
Naturally, LNGSE greatly improves the
performance of compiled programs,
and by a better than multiplicative
ratio (the reason for this mathematical
effect is given at the back of the LNGSE
manual). As most commercial software
is compiled, you are the beneficiary!
Q6) Why is LNGSE so cheap? A6) The
truth is, we know that once you have
experienced LIGHTNING SPECIAL
EDITION, you won't abandon your QL.
As THE QL software publisher, that is
rather good news for us. Q7) One
more reason for buying LNGSE? A7)
Look at our SPECIAL DEALS, and think.
SPECIAL DEALS can allow you to get
additional programs for free, even to
get us pay you to buy them! Hint:
Combine cheap and dearer programs.

BUY LIGHTNING SPECIAL EDITION NOW!

DIGITAL PRECISION PRICES

43:D PRECISION CAD SYSTEM

ADVENTURE CREATION TOOL SPECIAL EDITION
ARCADIA GAME

ARCHIVE DEVELOPMENT SYS + RUN-TIME MODULE
ARCHIVE TUTORIAL

SETTER BASIC EXPERT SYSTEM

BLOCKLANOS GAME

CASH TRADER v3.3 + ANALYSER

COMPARE FILE UTILITY

COPY UTILITY FOR BACKING UP

CPORT BASIC TO C AUTO-TRANSLATOR WITH C68 COMPILER
CPORT BASIC TO C AUTO-TRANSLATOR

DATABASE ANALYSER FOR ARCHIVE

DAT-APPOINT APPOINTMENT DATABASE SYSTEM
DESKJET/LASERIET DRIVER FOR PRO PUBLISHER
DESKTOP PUBLISHER SPECIAL EDITION

DESKTOP PUBLISHER

DICITAL C COMPILER

DIGITAL C SPECIAL EDITION

DISKTOOL WITH QUICKDISK

DROIOZONE GAME

DR-DOS v7 STATE OF THE ART PC OPERATING SYSTEM
EDITOR SPECIAL EDITION

EDITOR

EYE-Q GRAPHICS SYSTEM

FONT ENLARGER

GAMES COMPENDIUM (ALL FIVE GAMES)

GRAFIX 24.PIN UNIVERSAL PRINTER DRIVER
HARDBACK + FINDER HARO DISK MANAGER

JOIS INTELLIGENT DISASSEMBLER

1OIS SPECIAL EDITION

LIGHTNING ACCELERATOR

LIGHTNING SPECIAL EDITION ACCELERATOR
LIGHTNING GOLD SPECIAL EDITION

MAILMERGE OATABASE SYSTEM

MEDIA MANAGER SPECIAL EDITION

MEDIA MANAGER

MEGA DICTIONARY

MICROBRIOGE

NAMES ANO ADDRESSES DATABASE SYSTEM
PAYROLL SYSTEM

PC CONQUEROR GOLD SPECIAL EDITION WITH DR-DOS v7
PC CONQUEROR GOLD SPECIAL EDITION

PC CONQUEROR WITH DR-DOS v7

PC CONQUEROR

PEDIT PRINTER DRIVER FOR XCHANGE

PERFECTION PLUS SPECIAL EDITION WITH SPELLCHECKER
PERFECTION PLUS WITH SPELLCHECKER

PERFECTION SPECIAL EDITION WORD PROCESSOR v5
PERFECTION SPECIAL EDITION DEMO VERSION + SAMPLE DATA
PERFECTION WORD PROCESSOR v3

PERFECT POINTER TOOLS

PROFESSIONAL ASTROLOGER WITH ASTRONOMER
PROFESSIONAL ASTROLOGER

PROFESSIONAL ASTRONOMER

PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHER TOOLBOXES (BOTH PARTS)
PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHER TOOLBOX PART ONE
PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHER TOOLBOX PART TWO
PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHER,

QFLICK CARD INDEX SYSTEM

‘QKICK FRONT END SYSTEM

QMATHS MATHEMATICAL SYSTEM PART ONE
QMATHS MATHEMATICAL SYSTEM PART TWO
QMATHS MATHEMATICAL SYSTEM (BOTH PARTS)
QMON MACHINE CODE MONITOR

5
49954
49.956
9955
29.950
19.95 a
24952
995s
9995
19958
9958
99.95¢
89.95 ¢
19.958
19.954
19.95¢
39.95 ¢
24.954
29.958
49.95 8
19.95
995a
89.956
49.954
29.958
39.95 8
19957
29.952
14956
49.95 ¢
24.958
39.95 ¢
24958
49.95h
39.95 a
19.95 a
49.95 4
24.958
29959
39.950
19.95¢
49.95
179.959
99.959
139.956
59.957
19.958
139.95¢
99.951
99.95 ¢
19.95¢
59.954
29958
69.952
59.95
29.958
49.956
29.956
29.956
89.95¢
29958
24.950
69.95¢
59.95¢
99.95
39.954

‘QUICKLASER PUBLISHER DRIVER FOR LASERJET/DESKJET PRINTERS 19.95 ¢

RECOVER ARCHIVE UTILITY

REVERS! GAME

SEDIT + SCREENPRINT ARCHIVE UTILITIES

SOLUTION PC EMULATOR WITH DR-DOS ¥7

SOLUTION PC EMULATOR

SPELLCHECKER WITH DICTIONARIES

SUCCESS CP/M EMULATOR

SUPERBASIC MONITOR

‘SUPERFORTH COMPILER WITH REVERSI

SUPER ASTROLOGER

‘SUPER BACKGAMMON GAME

SUPER SPRITE GENERATOR

TOOLATT Mi WITH ROM

TOOLKIT itt

‘TRANSFER UTILITY SPECIAL EDITION

XREF SUPERBASIC PROGRAM ANALYSER,

TRANSFER UTILITY

‘TURBO BASIC COMPILER + TOOLKIT

ULTRAPRINT SCREEN DUMP UTILITY

XREF SUPERBASIC PROGRAM ANALYSER
KEY. aeAvallable etther on cartridge oF sk: beDesk only: c=Minimum
‘only: doMinlenar 256K exp: ether cartiage or diuk, toMinimay 256K
*Chrtridge only: g=Minimum 1S RAM dish only

19.958
995s
19.958
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29.95 r
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24952
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9955
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29.958
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yk, heROM « (enrtridge or dish)

AND NOW - BEST-EVER SPECIAL DEALS...

5% off 2 ONS
10% off 3 proggarts

We off 4 progans
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UP
LD C

A

This amazing product ts the way forward for the QL. Like Gold Card before It, the
brand-new Super Gold Card Is a plug-in disk Interface and RAM expansion that
works on all Ql versions Incredibly, It Is over three times speedier than Gold Card,
with over twice the RAM and with many enhancements. It complements LIGHTNING
SPECIAL EDITION Ike nothing else, squeezes the best out of TURBO (which was
designed with 32-bit CPUs in mind) and really accelerates PC CONQUEROR. Super
Gold Card 1s actually as fast, of slightly faster, than the much vaunted QXL: also, It Is
100% Ql-compatible now, and no PC Is needed. The table below really says It all

System + Bare TRUMP GOLD SUPER
4 Features Qt CARD 1 CARO GOLD CARD
Relative Speed Ix 1.8x 7x 25x!
Motorola CPU 68008 68008 68000 M68020
Clock Frequency 7.5MH2 7.SMHz 16MH2 24MHz
Bus width 8 bit 8 bit 16 bit 32 bit
RAM fitted 128Kb 896Kb 1,920Kb 3,968Kb
RAM access speed Slow OK Fast Twice as fast
PCB population Vhigh — High V.low V.low
Physical dimensions Monolith Full-size Half-size Half-size
Lock-up frequency Ouch! Occasional V.rare Won't
Battery Backup Clock No No Yes Yes
Clock Protection level N/A N/A Modest High
Toolkit ! + Manual No Yes (earlyvns) Yes Enlarged
Sub-directory support No No Yes Yes
Parallel/Centronics port No No No Yes
Spooler/Screendump/Ramdisks NO Yes Yes Yes
Speedup switch (Screen#2) No No No Yes
Future hi-res graphics No No No Planned
Disk drives supported N/A SD/O0D — SD/DD/HD/ED $D/DD/HD/ED
Max no: of disk drives 0 2 3 4
Max sectors/disk N/A 1,440 6,400 6,400
Max disk transfer rate N/A 30Kb/sec 120Kb/sec >120Kb/sec
Peripheral card tolerance OK No No OK
SCSI-2 compatibility to-be No ? No Yes
Miracle/DP Warranty No No 2 years 2 years
DIY/Kit incorporability Yes No No Yes
Overall Rating byDP = 2% 10% 30% 110%

‘And to the Very Best news: from DP, SUPER GOLD comes SUPER CHEAP!
SUPER GOLD CARD, plus a no-limit extra 20% SOFTWARE
DP DISCOUNT VOUCHER, plus a FREE mystery OP program,
plus a FREE Dust Cover, will cost you a mere £375 V¥vv
Less £125 If part-exchanging your standard 2Mb Gold Card
Add £125 for ED 6400-sector Disk Drive (PSU, cased, cables).
OTHER HARDWARE EXCHANGED AND SOLD BY ARRANGEMENT. PLEASE
ORDER NOW: WE EXPECT VERY HIGH DEMAND FOR SUPER GOLD CARDS,
AND WE DON'T WISH TO DISAPPOINT. INTERNATIONAL RAM PRICES ARE
UNSTABLE AND PRICE HIKES MAY BE INEVITABLE. CONSEQUENTLY, THE
ABOVE COMBINATION OFFER COULD BE WITHDRAWN WITHOUT NOTICE...
The software discount must be taken at the same time as the main order, and CAN be
combined with the SPECIAL DEALS discounts. For exampl you chose six DP programs of

total list price £100, you would only have to pay £100 20% = £48 for them! And, of
course, you would also get the two gifts absolutely free, and a 4Mb SUPER GOLD CARD too!

TERMS & CONDITIONS * We accupt perment by VISA, Mestercard, Access, Eurocard, Ewochaaee, { cheque drown on
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‘Sccount 460327608 at barclays Bank pi, South Chingford Bronch (sort code 20-53-00), NE London Business
70 fou 2403, London NIE PAY If you muit ase another currency, add 7.5% If vou must ase anether form of chews,
‘add £15. * Upgrader cost ony the aifferance im corrent prica ples £10; retern the exiginal disk and menal. But do
ROT return the manual If the wegradd 13 10 « “SPECIAL EDITION of your original program: vow wil be sent wrefid
Twpplemantery documentation Upgrades from UGHTNING are the exceptions to the laxt ruil * Only OF programs and
pgrades (he rot OR DOS) count towards discounts. * Pricas are a Inchesive for UK maitorder. Rast of Cores, add 3%
Ehewhere, edd 10% (Ar Mall] Wa aim for 24 how turnaround. * DF & Digital Precision are trading memes of Digital
Precision Ltd, Company Ne 1833989, registered In England & Wales, * Orders using your own paper ore else wekormat
De BK BK Ce KK KK KK
Postto: D/G/TAL PRECISION, 222 The Avenue, London E4 9SE, UK
or phone on 081-527 5493 from UK, +44 81-527 5493 rest of the world

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rere
Signature: Amount: £
Card No: Expiry date:

REVIEW OF QINDEX

Billerica, Massachesetts, USA - Gary Norton

QINDEX, as the name applies is an indexing program. It
will produce an index from either a Quill file or from an
ASCII text file. Since I do not own Text 87 or Perfection, |
cannot comment on its compatibility with their files.
However, if neither of these type files work, you can
always save them as a text file.

QINDEX requires TKII, is Gold Card and Minerva compatible and runs in the pointer
environment. The disk comes with two programs, QINDEX_ OBJ, for those with the pointer
environment (PE) already running, and QINDEX_EXE for those without.

For those not familiar with the PE, I will explain step-by-step the process required. Those of
you that have used the PE please bear with me. Once loaded, the top of the screen contains a
command bar, with a hand pointed to the Document box. At this point your only choices are
to select a document for use, exit the program, or put the program to sleep. To load a quill or
text document, with the hand in the Document box, press your mouse button, joystick firing
button, or Enter key. Press F2. In the Directory box, select either MDV or FLP then |
through 8 for the drive. Next, select the Data Default and do the same. Select OK. NOTE:
I’ve been unable to change the
data default from MDV2.
I'm not sure if this is a bug in
the program or the user. It
allows me to make the change,
but when I select NEW (see
bi oreasing cone he pointer pared over it below), it defaults back to
ta" fn the Flite select manu, choose the required rive (F(t MDV2.. The files on the
‘not tee tre shouns Uren ou can see, tna Tl lenane ae ate
a proyran we ratirnad to. the. bars press H to selected drive appear below.
hehe Select the one to be used. I’ve
jecning rod selected the Sample_txt file
| provided on thé QINDEX
disk. To load, select the OK
box.

SGC TUTORTA
Wick Step by Slap guide to proaicing « smple (nian from

The maximum number of lines allowed in the file to be indexed is 1,024 lines. Once loaded,
the file is processed and the details of the lines produced are loaded in a reserved area of
memory; the size determined by the number of lines. If there is insufficient memory to hold
the number of lines, your options are to quit, select another file, or change the number of lines
to be allowed. Next, select whether you will be adding to an existing index or starting a new
one.

.Once you make your selection, move the pointer into the text area. The pointer cursor
becomes a Quill-type cursor. Move the cursor to the first character of the text to be indexed.
Use the TAB, shift-TAB, up and down arrows, and shift up and down arrows to move the
cursor. Once in place, press E. Move the cursor over the text to become an index entry; the
text becomes highlighted. With the area highlighted, press enter. The text is now stored in
the index file. When you have finished marking the text to have the same reference, press R.
This text is indexed under the reference name. Continue through the file. At any time, press
H, and you have search mode. :

QINDEX - (CONT'D)

When you have completed your indexing, press M or select MAKE INDEX. This makes the
index. You select font size, lines per page, and format. Once all selections are made, select
OK and the index file is created. If Pica or Elite fonts were selected, the index display will be
in one column. Any other font and the display is printed in two columns.

The program’s presentation and
function is very impressive. Even
without a mouse, the PE eases a
program’s operation. As mentioned
earlier, you can use a mouse
(preferred method), the keyboard, or
a joystick to move around the screen.
Even if the user has never seen a
pointer environment screen, they
would have little trouble navigating
around this program. I especially like
that the PE is included onthe
program disk.

“BGC TONER
A quick steo by step guide to
the taxt (lie supplied called
CU be called Ace «

LP2_, or unichever drive you havel
21 Start the os descr lbed|

Rt or Doe
the File select manu, choowe whe required anive if Ut
Une one shou. Uben You con see the Fi (enome

the big box unere the i
tea Flashing red

oa the cursor over @ ord or phrase to be added to the
29. Ue vord IAD ond press E for a nev entry.
sockear appears.

As for QINDEX itself, if someone writes articles or other papers, this is a very easy way to
index the article. The maximum number of lines, equal to about sixteen pages, could be a
drawback. The inability to change the data default is also problematic. To me, the biggest
drawback is each index entry cannot be longer than twenty characters. In my experimenting
with the supplied text file, when I attempted to sclect more than the 20 characters, I was
knocked out of the program and had to reboot. However, once familiar with the program,
you are able to deal with these and do some serious indexing. For someone with this need, J
know of no other program that will allow you to index a file, using its own text. QINDEX is
surely worthy of your consideration.

CORRECTION !!

Bangor, Gwynedd, GREAT BRITAIN - Dilwyn Jones

In Volume 3 Issue 4 there were errors in the listing due to having the attribute conditions
accidentally inverted (ie. testing for 1 instead of 0). Here are the lines to correct on page 65:

1000 IF bold% = 0 THEN
1070 IF underline % = 0 THEN
1140 IF low% = 0 THEN
1210 IF high % = 0 THEN

Similar corrections need to be made to the C version, but I don’t know enough C to list the
changes. It looks as though similar changes need to be made on the tests on "bold", “uline",
“low” and "high" on pages 70 and 71.

SPREADSHEETS / DESKJET 500

Trafford, Alabama, USA - Bob Madaris

Having recently taken advantage of what I think is a good price on the HP DESKJET 500
printer ( $299.00 at OFFICE MAX ), I then had the task of changing the printer drivers for
the Psion software that I use with it One of the many features of this printer is the option of

SPREADSHEETS/DESKJET 500 - (CONT’D)

selecting landscape ( sideways ) printing. This caused me to think of the possibilities of
printing large spreadsheets with this option of the printer. After studying the printer control
codes in the owners manual, | came up with a print driver for Abacus that prints the
spreadsheet across the length of the paper. | also devised a translate to print in double height,
as this printer supports this in landscape mode. All of the following will be correct only if the
Mode function switches on the printer are down.

Run the Psion install_bas program , use down arrow key to OTHER, then press F2 to edit the
driver. Edit the driver as follows:

DRIVER NAME :DESKJET_aba Remark: or a name you want.
PORT ‘ser 7 Remark: or whatever port you use.
Baud RATE :9600

PARITY :NONE

LINES/PAGE 145

CHARACTERS/LINE 2172
CONTINUOUS FORMS — :NO

END OF LINE CODE :CR,LF

PREAMBLE CODE :ESC,E,ESC,&,1,1,0 Remark: 27,69,27,38,108,49,79
POSTAMBLE CODE :ESC,E Remark: 27,69
BOLD ON ‘NONE

BOLD OFF :NONE

UNDERLINE ON :NONE

UNDERLINE OFF :NONE

SUBSCRIPT ON :NONE

SUBSCRIPT OFF :NONE

SUPERSCRIPT ON :NONE

SUPERSCRIPT OFF :NONE

TRANSLATEI1 :£,ESC,(,1,E, #,ESC,(,0,N

TRANSLATE2 :0,ESC,(,s,2,4,V

TRANSLATE3 :0,ESC

Remarks on the above: The preamble code puts the printer in Landscape Print mode. The
postamble puts it back in Portrait mode ( resets printer ). Translate] causes the printer to
properly print the U. K. pound monetary symbol. The first character in translate2 1s Control
Shift D { CHR$(164) J. When this character is embedded at the start of the spreadsheet, it will
cause 24 point ( double height ) printing. Caution: The lines per page and characters per line
will not be right for this. It should only be used on small spreadsheets. Also the Design
command in Abacus should be used to set Gaps between lines to | if you are to use translate2.
[ F3, (D)esign in ABACUS ].

TRANSLATE3 [ Ctrl Shift E ] is used to send the ESCape sequence to the printer. The
PSION printer driver does not allow you to send this character from your document. The
Lines/Page and Characters/Line in this driver is set to use the Courier 16.67 typeface of the
printer. This is where we use Translate3. At the start of the spreadsheet , in TEXT mode type
the following: O(s16.67H (the first character is CTRL SHIFT E ). This sends the ESCape
sequence to the printer to select the 16.67 cpitype. With this print you can get two screens

wide by two screens deep on a sheet of paper. With the grid sizes normal ( 10 ), You can print

columns A1:N45 on one sheet of paper. If you wanted to, you could then put the paper back in
and print the rest of your spreadsheet on the back.

20

SPREADSHEETS/DESKSJET 500 - (CONT'D)

Translate3 can be used to select many of the features of this printer. If, for instance, you want
to have the Title of the spreadsheet printed in Bold type, do as follows:Just before the Title,
in TEXT mode type O(s3B. Then after the Title type O (sOB. As you can see you could use
Translate3 to embed codes to use /talics in your spreadsheet to emphasize certain items. Look
up the code in the owners manual for the printer's feature that you want to use and then
embed them in your spreadsheet. Use Ctrl Shift E for the ESCape code so that the print
driver will send the ESCape code to the printer and then follow that with the rest of the code.

The Landscape mode of printing on the DESKJET 500 is only available on the Courier
typeface. This is the default when it is turned on, but if you have changed it to another
typeface, you will need to put it back to Courier before trying to print with this print

river. The LINES/PAGE and CHARACTERS/LINE for this print driver are based on U.S.
Letter paper size at 6 lines per inch and 16.67 cpi ( Courier 16.67 ). Refer to the DeskJet 500
owners manual for using European A4 or U.S. Legal paper. There is a chart in the manual
showing this information ( page 5.5 ). You can use Courier 10 cpi and change the
CHARACTERS/LINE to 103. Courier 20 would need this changed to 206. The 24 point (
double height ) option is available on all three of these pitches ( use TRANSLATE2 ).

It is important to remember to use the Design Command in Abacus to change the lines per
page and the characters per line to the settings above.

As letter quality is not usually required for this type printout, you could select draft mode on
the printer. | use the XCHANGE program for the 4 PSION programs and have created
several different print drivers for Abacus and Quill. I can easily access them by using the
BACKUP command in XCHANGE to overwrite xchange _dat with any of the different
drivers that I have copied to the disk . If you do not use XCHANGE, you can do this same
thing with Printer_dat. If you do not use XCHANGE, why not ??? It is Public Domain. I find
it to have really revitalized my interest in the PSION 4. I use them more now than ever before
and even though I have Text87plus4, I still do a lot work in Quill.

One thing that I had never seen before when using the Psion programs was the Command
Line Prompt "NEW SHEET OF PAPER AND PRESS ENTER". I had always used
continuous form paper. When this is set to NO in the print driver, then you will get this
prompt for each page to be printed. This allows you to insert the same sheet ( printed side up
) and print the other side by pressing ENTER.

I will share the drivers that I have developed for the DeskJet 500 printer for Quill in a follow
up article in the near future ( next issue ?). Archive programs very easily sends to the printer
any printer command that you want to with the Lprint Command and CHR(). With the
numerous box and line drawing features that are standard in this printer’s character sets, there
are huge possiblities for printing out databases with boxed fields, etc. Alas, I do not guess that
I would ever master replacing Gprint_prt for the Easel program to print to this printer. I will
have to use a work-a-round like Simon Goodwin’s HPDUMP in QL WORLD.

If you have any questions on this, please send a SASE.

Robert C. Madaris
41 Doty Drive
Trafford, AL 35172
USA

Ergon: c/o Davide Santachiara - Via Emilio De Marchi 2
- 42100 Reggio Emilia ITALY - Phone x-39-522-70409

FiDOnet address: 2:335/21.11
News: lower prices ...

Hello all. The main changes are the price of our
programs. They are now all inclusive (p&p, bank|
charges) and they are shown in 3 different currency. So
your work is now much easier. USD prices include |
airmail postage to the States. Prices are lower due to:
different conversion rates (ITL is very low now). We |
have now bought a laser printer, so the quality of the |
manuals is now much better. Most of them have been |
revised and step by step tutorials have been added. As |
you can see this is a rather special advert (created with
Plus 4 & Linedesign on a QXL): Refer to the other ;
issues of IQLR for detailed program specifications. It is '
now time to tell existing users how to upgrade}
programs and/or manuals. If your manual is not laser-
printed we advise you to get a new one. The upgrade
prices given below comprise p&p, the new manual and '
3.5" disk(s) with the latest version of the program(s) .

2x eMulator 128k plus 1

ZM/128 plus 1 is a new major release of our clever
Spectrum 48k/128k emulator. It has been improved to
run happily with Minerva double screen or 68030
(QVME) and 68040 (QXL) systems. You can now run it
with any screen resolution (QL, EGA, VGA). ZM/128
automatically selects its internal routine to get the best
Performance from your system. On a QXL you will
usually get >100% ZX speed but ZM/128+ still remains
the only Spectrum 128k emulator usable on a Gold
Card QL. As an added bonus, if you use the Ext.Env.,

INTERnet:

Davide_Santachiara@f21.n335.22.fidonet.org

you can now switch to other task without the need to
return to the supervisor. ZM/128+ still offers you the
unique feature of 3 channel soundchip emulation. You
can get ZM/128+ free if you get the ZM/x or the ZM/hT
system. Registered users can get it with the new 90
pages manual which costs only 6 GBP or 10 USD.

DEA intelligent disassembler +3

This is the cheapest disassembler available for QDOS-
SMSQ, but it is also powerful. Plus 3 is interactive and
the latest v5.21 is now full QXL compatible. If you own
a pre-5.20 release you MUST ABSOLUTELY upgrade:
it will cost you (with new manual) only 7 USD or 4 GBP.

Reviewers Sald about them

MasterBasic: "Elegant and useful" (S.Goodwin QLW
4/93) "Easy to use and well thought out, even the more
casual SB programmer should get a lot of use out of it”
(R.Mellor QLW 6/92) DEA "This program is certainly the
most versatile machine code programming utility | have
seen on any computer to date" (QLW 4/92) ZX
Emulator “really spectacular... well worth the price”
(E.Forenzi on IQLR vol3/1) "ZM/NT is very fast... well
worth the extra cost.. an incredible feat of computer
science" (S.Goodwin QLW 4/93) "awesome... even an

' 8 bit QL can run ZX software at reasonable speed ...

most sophisticated..." (Last issue of Your Sinclair!).

: Almost all of our programs now run property on

the QXL or QVME with any screen resolution and
with system variables in any place: future proof.

New program, upgrades and new manuals prices

Price full inclusive

USD GBP DEM
Spectrum emul. ZM/x system 45 28 70
Spectrum emul. ZM/hT system 60 40 105
DEA intelligent disassembler 40 26 65
MasterBasic 35 22 55
Q-Library Manager 25 18 #45
Floppy Disk Utilities 25 18 45
Open World 25 18 «45
Music Manager 20 12 30

Program & Manual upgrade Current versions

Pages USD GBP DEM /2 3.60-1.10 /3 3.60-0.50
90 10 6 15 /1283.62-1.28LC plus
90 10 6 15 shT 4.31-4.70 Jac 3.15
52 7 4 7 plus 3 v5.21 interactive
40 6 35 9 plus 1 version 1.43

20 4 2 § — version 2.11

40 6 3.5 9 version 1.15

12 3 1.5 4 — version 2.12

8 3 15 4 version 1.2

USD: United States Dollar GBP: Great Britain Pound DEM: Deutsche Mark

All the prices are inclusive of p&p, air-mail delivery, bank fees. Accepted forms of payment * Cheque in foreign
currency * Eurocheque in ITL (1 GBP=2500 ITL) * Cash in ITL or foreign currency * Intemational postal order in
ITL * Direct bank transfer to Banca Popolare Dell'Emilia SWIFT BPMOIT012 Telex 510031 emipop - Sede Reggio
Emilia Account no. 6533/73 D.Santachiara. Cheques payable to D.Santachiara. Demo/PD versions availables.
Now available also the NEW Spectrum 2x eMulator PD disk with ZM/hT & ZM/128+ PD and some PD/demo ZX
games: send us 6 IRCs, Special Deals: Buy for upgrade) the ZMVx or ZM/NT system and get ZM/128+
free, Discounts (upto 30%) to people who want to make group buys. Just write us for detailed Infos.

MECHANICAL
AFFINITY

513 EAST MAIN ST. OR 5231 WILTON WOOD CT

PERY IN 46970 INDIANAPOLIS IN 46254
317 473 8031 317 291 6002
FRANK DAVIS PAUL HOLAGREN

Bringing the very best to you in SINCLAIR software and
hardware from around the world. We want to provide
service to you the customer. Need something, give us a
call. Make all checks or money orders out to either "Krank
Davis" or "Paul Holmgren". Thanks! Payment in uss.
SPECIALS GOOD TILL CURRENT SUPPLY EXHAUSTED

MAGNAVOX RGB MONITORS ---These 80 column monitors contain RGB, Composite video,
and can also accept a VCR hookup to play movies on. They have built-in sound, and
with the flick of a switch can give you a green mono screen. They are ideal for the QL,
Spectrum or TS2068 (even for the ZX81 if you have fixed it For monitor input). They are
offered for $125 US$, and this includes shipping. We also have black QL monitors, RGB
of course, for the same low price.

BACKUP OL COMPUTER---Complete QL Computer, USA model with JSU ROM and power
supply, but no manual or microdrive cartridge. Excellent backup computer or to give to
the other people in the family who get in the way when you need to use yours. We
have these available for the great low price of only $75, which includes shipping and
handling. If you need a manual and PSION programs with this, (hen the price is $85.

---one time only special on (his 2 meg of memory, three disk
drive, 16 MHz card for the QL, till current supply is gone. After that, back (o regular
market prices. For the first time ever, get a Gold Card for $300t!! This docs includes
shipping and insurance!

SINCLAIR PRINTERS---9 pin dot matrix printers made for Sinclair with QL logo. They use
the same popular ribbons as the Epson 800 and 1000, so they are easy to find, and being
dot matrix they can easily do labels or multi-page copies of forms. On sale for only
$60, refurbished and run like new.

---almost a complete rewrite of PD2, and operates under the
extended environment, $o you can use both mouse and keyboard on this new desk lop
publisher. New and more efficient printer routines, and can use Digital Precisions High
Definition Fonts. It now has an Eraser Function, as well as an Overstrike Function and
Pixel Edit, full screen handling, cut and paste, complete graphics menu, and text
import. Requires TK2 and 512K. For only $62, and include shipping.

Now available on a QL near you...

GT-Prolog/QL

The easy way to explore the world of Artificial
Intelligence and Symbolic Processing

Edinburgh Syntax - as adopted for the International Prolog Standard
Incremental Compiler - provides complete/partial recompilation in situ
Automatic Garbage Collectors - reclaim code and data spaces
Tail-Recursion Optimisation - improves speed and memory usage
First Argument Indexing/Hashing - automatic performance gains
Extended data types - 32bit integers / 48bit reals / 255 byte atoms /
32kb strings / 8bit characters

Functors/Predicates - up to 255 arguments + specially optimised lists
Interactive Workbench (needs 512k)

* Windows, Menus, Dialogues (pointer environment not required)

* Editor - directly coupled to the compiler for faster development

* Debugger - dynamic breakpoints, tracing, database interrogation

* Break mechanism - halt runaway programs, modify and continue

* Error handler - user and system errors handled by catch and throw
User Guide, Reference Manual - over 150 pages of documentation
Full QDOS compatibility - 130+ library procedures
Configurable Memory - up to 16Mb data, 2Gb code
Turbo Performance - Naive Reverse exceeds 5k LIPS (16Mhz Gold Card)

Price including postage/packing £89.95

For more information contact us at

Rosebank, Stream Road, Grange
Upton, Oxon, OX11 9JG, Technology
United Kingdom i ae

Tel/Fax: +44-235-851818 Limited

QL ABACUS <--> MSDOS LOTUS

SPREADSHEET DATA TRANSFER ——
Pylesville, Maryland USA - Thomas Robbins

ERRATA from the previous articles in this

series: On page 21 Vol.3/Issue 3 of IQLR"
QL/Archive to PC DBase", I inadvertently

gave the command for the example file to be
appended into DBase as ’APPENDFROM
GAZET_EXP DELIM’. It should read "APPEND
FROM GAZET.EXP DELIM’.

In giving my address in the second article for any one who would like to obtain a copy of
XCHANGE, | gave my Post Code/Zip Code as 21237. It is actually 21132.

Welcome to part 3 of the QL <--> MSDOS applictions data transfer series. In this section, we
will examine the transfer of data from QL Abacus/XCHANGE to MSDOS Lotus. This
transfer is of spreadsheet data (both entered and calculted) only. Cell formulas are not
transfered, but the result calculated by the formula is.

Transfer of Abacus to Lotus is actually quite simple if a few basic steps are taken. The export
file structure consists of a series of records each terminated by <CR>(ASCII code 13) and
<LF>(ASCII code 10), with the end of the file marked by CTRL Z(ASCII code 26).

Each record consists of a series of values seperated by commas. The values are either text
(which must be enclosed in quotes) or numbers. The first value in each record must be text
and if it’s name ends with a dollar sign ($), all the following values must be text.

Consider the ABACUS spreadsheet fragment below:

| A B ti: & | p| Ef F | Gf oH
1 First Last Travel Food = Misc. Total PCT MISC
2 Beth Read 350 85 30 465 6.45 %
3 Mary Milton 1400 300 80 1780 4.49%
4 Stuart Kipling 850 200 35 1085 3,23 %
5 Tracy Rose 1250 260 55 1565 3.51%
6 James Wilson 650 120 40 810 4.94%

Below is an export file created by the following series of commands:

KEY IN Function

F3 go to the command mode
F Select files commands
E Export
A Selects Abacus/Archive comma delimited format
A1:H6 Selects the range to be exported
ENTER Confirms range
Selects export by columns
FLP2_ SAMPLE Device /drive and file name to store the file on The file name - note:

the extension _exp will be added automatically by Abacus

25

ABACUS/LOTUS - (CONT’D)

Important note: There can be no blank lines between the column heading and the beginning
of the column data, The data to be exported must follow the column heading. You may have
to do the export in segments to avoid this if you have a spreadsheet with a lot of sections with
titles and fancy layout headings.

It is essential that the first row of the range to be exported contain the column name and the
second row contain the data to be exported. If your spreadsheet has blank columns between
data columns, and you wish to retain these blank columns in Lotus, put a ‘dummy’ column
heading in these columns. This maintains your original column setting in the Lotus file when
transfered.

Notice the column headings. Any heading for a column with text data has a °$’ appended by
the export function. Columns with "illegal" characters in the heading (., +, % or a space etc)
have the column identifier (COLE for column E) as the heading, Calculated fields and
formatted fields have the unformatted values in the export file - COLumn G is "percent misc."
and is misc/total. In Abacus, I have formatted this column as percent, but in the export file it
comes out as a decimal. Below is the export file that has been created.

“First$”,"Last$","Travel”,"Food","COLE",”Total","COLG"
“Beth","Read",350,85,30,465,0.0645 16129032258
"“Mary","Milton",1400,300,80,1780,0.0449438202247 19
"Stuart”,"Kipling",850,200,35,1085,0.0322580645 16129
"Tracy”,”Rose",1250,260,55,1565,0.035 143769968051
"James","Wilson”,650,120,40,810,0.0493827 16049382

Once you have exported the data to a file, you must transfer the file to an MSDOS formatted
disk. There are a number of programs available to accomplish this, including several in the
Quanta Library. Execute Lotus 123 on the MSDOS P.C. From the main menu:

KEY IN Function
/ go to the command mode - equivalent to F3 in ABACUS
F Select files commands - the same as ABACUS
I Select Import sub command - the same as ABACUS
N NUMBERS - Parse each line imported into numbers and _ text
a:\MYFILE.EXP Drive and name of file to be imported
ENTER Do it

ait Firsts Reaby

a 8 c D i F G co

1 Firsts Lasts Travel Food _ COLE __ Tetal — COLG

2 Beth Read 350 es 3e 465 0.064516

3 ary Hitton 1420 300 Be «1788 0.084943

4 Stuart Kipling ese 200 35 «(1885 0.832758

s Tracy Rose 1258 268 ss 1565 @.035143

6 James Wilson 650 120 ae 810 @.049382

H

3

te

tt

12

rr

i

15

16

ty

by

ze

Py-bec-92 11239 an

26

ABACUS/LOTUS - (CONT’D)

What you now have in Lotus is your ABACUS spreadsheet data, At the bottom of the
preceding page is a screen dump from the P.C.

Note that the last column, which was a ‘calculated’ column in ABACUS, contains the
calculation results. I had set ABACUS up to format numbers as percent - F3 Units Cells
Percent 2 decimal places- but the exported file contains the unrounded values.

All that remains is for minor formatting and dressing up of the Lotus spreadsheet. You may
want to change column widths, restore formatting (ie. integer, percent or whatever) and
change column headings to get rid of the "$".

ALT(ernatives

Pylesville, Maryland, USA - Thomas’Robbins

ANOTHER WAY TO INDEX QUILL DOCUMENTS
1 enjoyed Bill Cable’s recent article on using Windex to index a long Quill document. Every
time I follow one of Bill’s programs, it acts as a tutorial on Archive programming.

There is another way to get to the same place. The Quanta Library contains a program called
Indexer by H. Miall on disc PSION_1. This is an indexing program for Quill doc’s. You
define a list of words or word groups and the program builds the index for you. The program
has a good documentation file and an easy to folow example.

ANOTHER WAY TO PRODUCE ASCII TEXT FROM A QUILL DOCUMENT

Dilwyn Jones’ recent program "STRIPPER" also reminded me that there are often several
ways to do the same job. I have also had the need to produce an ASCII text file from a Quill
document, but my approach was to modify the Quill printer driver using install_bas. If you set
the preamble, bold, underline, superscript and subscript to none in the printer driver, you can
print straight text to a file. Each line ends with a CR/LF and tabs are replaced with spaces.
Alternatively, if you have Xchange (and if not, why not) you can use the files/export
command in Xchange Quill. To produce "streaming ASCII", set the end of line code to a
space.

ANOTHER WAY TO COPY A DISK

MSDOS 6.0 (Oh the shame in mentioning MSDOS!) has a new form of the diskcopy
command. It makes a mirror of the disk as one long file onto the hard drive and then copies it
to another floppy. It will do this for QDOS formatted disks as well as MSDOS disks.

THE QL AND WINDOWS

At work, I have a 486 MSDOS computer with Windows. | recently tried to install a
spreadsheet program (Quatro Pro 5.0) on it. I could not install it, as the computer had “only” 2
megabytes of ram! My QL with Gold Card/QPAC runs faster than the MSDOS machine
under windows. I'll be sticking with QDOS for most of my computing for the forseable future
- plus it is a whole lot more fun to use.

QDOS/QL Options

Does anyone have any experience with the AMIGA QDOS emulator? I am trying to decide
between the QXL, waiting for the Miracle Systems Graphic Card, the Atari Emulator, the
AMIGA emulator or sticking with the Gold Card. Can anyone tell me the difference between
QDOS, SMS-Q and SMS-2? 5

DILWYN JONES COMPUTING

41 BRO EMRYS, TAL-Y-BONT, BANGOR,
GWYNEDD, LL57 3YT, GREAT BRITAIN

FAX + TELEPHONE: (0248) 354023

QL SOFTWARE

A SELECTION FROM OUR RANGE OF NEARLY 100 PRODUCTS FOR THE QL
NOT FNOUGH ROOM TO GIVE MUCH INFORMATION HERR HERE, SO PLEASE,
ASK FOR OUR CATALOGUE (PHONE OR WRITE FOR A COPY).

QUICKMANDELBROTIN £15.00

Fractal graphics, mandeDrot set, Juha set, sereen
dump fociliry, use mode 4 or mode 8 10 generate
sereens, background calculation option, save and
doad screens. Works on 128k O1.. disk of microdrive.

SToQL £12.50

Atari ST screen transfer program for use with
Discover. Converts Neochrome or Degas (all three
resolutions in pil pi2 or pi3 format), 256k RAM,
disk only.

QUIZ MASTER 11 £12.50
Similar to quiz game machines found in pubs and
‘hubs, colourful, 2 sexs of questions supplied, you can
make up your own for wse with this program. 128%
RAM, dik or microdrive.

OTHER SOFTWARE

QLOAD and QREF £15.00
Past load and reference usilry for basic programs.
S_EDIT 20.00
Easy to use editor for plain vex files.
BASIC REPORTER £10.00
Basic programming aid.

OPD INTERCHANGE £15.00
QL-ICL OPD file transfer software.
LOCKSMITHE £1495
Backup wily for cartridges.

4MATTER £1495
Backup and transfer wiry for disks
LOCKSMITHE & 4MATTER
TOGETHER £23.50
Nore: To use 4Marer, you need Locksmithe,
buat 4Matter available separarely for users
who already have Locksmithe.

MDYV TOOLCHEST £1495
‘Make your own microdrive rootkits!
FILES2 £12.00
Stmple to use file bockup, ec utility.
FILEMASTER £12.00
File backup and disk labeller program.

THR COPHER £12.00
‘Search for text in files on disks or hard disks.
WINBACK2 23.0
Hard disk backup utibry,

BANTER £25.00
Make banners posters on dot matrix printers.

VISION MIXER PLUS

Enhanced version of Vision Miter.
PICTUREMASTERE15.00

Screen design program, ideal with Vision Mlzer,
PICTUREMASTER PLUS £20.00
Enhanced version.

‘THE PAINTER £25.00
Pointer driven graphics program.

‘THE CLIPART £12.00
Wide range of QL clipart on 3 disks.
QRACTAL £20.00
Pointer driven fractal graphics software.
PD2CLIPART £10.00
2 diaks of QL clipart

SCREEN SNATCHER £10.00
Grab screen displays shown by other programs.
TEXT 'N' GRAPHIX£20.00
Combine screen dumps with Quill text.
TRANS24 £10.00
Graghics converter for 24 pin printers.
SIDEWINDER PLUS, 224.95
Screen dumps, banners, ete for dot matrix printers
ILE TEXT DISKS £20.00
Texs of King James Bible, plain text or Quill doe
SPELLBOUND £30.00
Spelling checker, not for pointer environment.
SPELLBOUND SE £50.00
Enhanced version, not for pointer environment.
QUICK POSTERS £10.00
Poster maker for Star printers.

ADDRESS BOOK & LABEL PRINTER

£15.00

Store oddresses and print address labels in Archive.

GENEALOGIST 2ND EDITION £30.00
Family trees and family history.

BUDGET 128K GENEALOGIST £12.00
Cut down version for unexpanded QL.
FLASHBACK £25.00
Fast, simple to use database.

FLASHBACK SE £40.00
Enhanced version.

DISK INDEXER £12.00
Create a database of the contents of your disks!
DBEASY £15.00
Archive wits,

DBPROGS £15.00
More Archive wsilsies,

NETWORK PROVER £4.00
Plugs to nexwork sockets, visual indications,
SOLITAIRE £15.00
The cassie solitaire card game.

THE FUGITIVE £9.95
Text adventure,

CRICKBT SECRETARY £12.00
Cricket scores exc. made easy with this program.
QUESTION MASTER

QM QUIZI

General knowledge.

Qu Quiz.2

Classical music.

QM QUIZ:3 x
‘Questions about the OL and QL scene!
COCKTAILS WAITER £10.00
Drinks recipes, great for parties etc

FLERT TACTICAL COMMAND 1639.95
Classic naval simulation for networked OLs
QToP 129.95
Polnter writes ere.

HOME BUDGET 20.00
UK home finance and tax programs.
SCREEN RCONOMISER £10.00
Screen blanker.

SLOWGOLD £5.00
Slow down Gold Card (for old games etc)
‘TASKMASTER 125.00
Task swticher silty.

DISK LABELLBR £10.00
Create smart labels for your floppy disk
THE CAT £5.00
‘Mui cobumn lists of files, on screen or printer,
ROB ROY PACK £10.00
Inkwell fons printer, plus Cue Well.

3D TERRAIN £12.50
Three-P graphical representation of Abacus data
RETURN TO EDBN £17.30
Role playing adventure game on 3 disks.

MAGAZINES

We now have in stock @ Kmited number of back
issues of the QL magazines formerly published by
CGH Serwces and we can abo offer indimdual
copies of the new QL magazine ‘QREVIEW.
Subscription details supplied with orders for any
back issues. Individual copies of QReew (published
by the editor of the other magazines described below.
QReview to be launched end of June) available for
£2.00 each (UK), £2.50 (Europe), or £3.50 (USA
‘and rest of wordd).

We can alto offer arrractive deaks on complete sets
of back issues of a magazine.

QL TECHNICAL REVIEW
A non-games rekew magazine, 9 issues available or
£2.00 each (UK), £2.50 (Europe), £3.50 (USA and
rest of world).

COMPLETE SET £12.00 (UK), £1600 (Europe).
£24.00 (USA exc}.

QLADVENTURER'S FORUM
Games based magazines, 9 issues in total available
a £1.75 each (UK). £2.25 (Europe). 8.25 (USA
ach.

QLLEISURE REVIEW
Games based magazines, 2 ixsucs published available
at £2.00 each (UK). £2.50 (Europe). £3.50 (USA
ac)

COMPLETE SET OF BOTH GAMES
MAGAZINES (11 ISSUES) £14.00 (UK), £20.00
(Europe), £30.00 (USA exc).

PLEASE NOTE: SMALL ORDERS.

AF TOTAL COST OF ORDER IS LESS THAN
£5.00, ADD £1.00 TOWARDS COST OF
SMALL ORDERS (BANK CHARGES BTC)
OR WE WILL MAKE A LOSS ONSUCH
ORDERS!

PAGE DESIGNER 3

This most delayed of all QL software of all rime (1
thinki) ls finally about 10 hit the streets. We were
‘hoping to launch ot the Bristol Quanta Workshop.
England, 17th October 1993. PD ts pointer driven,
can be controlled by mouse or keyboard, uses Pro
Publisher compatible Hires fonts, fearwres text
import. full QL screen handling, graphics menu, cut
‘and paste, 9 pin, 24 pin and HP Deskjet printers
‘and 30 on. Can be used for making posters and
other general mixed text and graphics applications.
It has been a tong hard slog getting this program out,
hope you will fect tt was worth the deiay!

Page Designer 3. £60.00
PD2 (send proof of purchase of old PD2)...£25.00

DILWYN JONES COMPUTING

41 BRO EMRYS, TAL-Y-BONT, BANGOR,
GWYNEDD, LLS7 3YT, GREAT BRITAIN

FAX + TELEPHONE

QL SOFTWARE

A SELECTION FROM OUR RANGE OF NEARLY 100 PRODUCTS FOR THE Ql.
NOT BNOUGH ROOM TO GIVE MUCH INFORMATION HERE HERR, SO PLEASE.

ASK FOR OUR CATALOGUE (PHON!

SERMOUSE £40.00

A complete mouse system for the QL. to work with
pointer driven programs such as QPAC2, Line
Design, etc. N.B. ADD £2.50 POSTAGE!

SIDEWRITER £13.00

For printing wide spreadsheets or plain text file
sideways using @ choice of character sizes on a9 pin
or 24 pin Epson compatible doe matrix printer.
Sidewriter can be pointer driven, or used without
‘polnser environment on wnexpanded QL. On disk o
microdrive.

QL GENEALOGIST 3£60.00

Brand new pointer driven version of the popular
Genealogist program. Ask for information! Cam be
controlled from the keyboard or using 0 QIMI or
Serial Mouse. ‘Pick’ boxes, new ‘county’ field,
improved dates. new ‘birth brief’ report, improved
loading and saving times, improved searching and
notes. Requires at least 512k memory, disk only.
Upgrade frome version 233.00
Upgrade from version 1£45.00
Upgrade from 128k version: 000
FASYPTR ITI pact} £40.50
Simplified pointer environment programming. Part 1
consists of sprite editor, mena editor and superbasic
extensions 10 use menus in your own programs.
Requires expanded memory, available on disk only.
EASYPTR Ill past? £20.00
Consists of appendix manager and enhanced toolkit
‘for control of menus etc in your programs.
EASYPTR UII part 3 2000
Consists of Easysource and C Rbrary routines, ec.

QLIBERATOR £50.00

Superb superbasic compiler, compiles virrually a of
baste plus most toolkit commands, etc. Produce
aster mutitasking code from your basic proprams.
‘Compile resident extensions, use overlays. ac with
the latest Y3.36. Can be mouse controlled. Expanded
‘memory required.

BUDGET QLIBERATOR £25.00
Excellent value, complies virtually all of superbasic
‘Not mouse controlled. Works on unexpanded QL

DITOOLKIT £10.00
Compact toolktt of BASIC extensions, Ideal for use

with QLiberaior. Really useful programming
commands, can be distributed with your compiled

programs if you wish At this barpaint
‘Suitable for wnexpanded QL alte

LINEDESIGN £100.00

Vector drawing package, user outline forts and
clipart, mowe ond resize text and graphics without
toss of quality. Ideal for making posters, ete
Supplied with Auge range of fonts and clipart on
TEN disks! The more memory your system has, the
better! Disk only, can be mouse controlled.

R WRITE FOR A COPY).

DATA DESIGN 3 £60.00
Superb, fast pointer driven dazabase with free form
field ssructures, with the option of disk based for
large files if required, or smaller files can be kept in
memory for speed. Expanded memory, disk only.
APL for Data Design £20.00

8 progr: ity ie BASIC, C or m/code.

Qpacz £39.95
Tony Tebby's superb poinier environment package.
Mouse or teyboard controlled, a good introduction
10 pointer environment. 256k ram min. Disk only.

QPaci £19.95

Ideal companion to QPAC2. consists of imall
accessory programs. Can be used with or without
QPAC2 Expanded memory required, disk only.

qryrz 29.95

Tony Tebby's spelling checker program. Check
spelling ax you type OR check existing files
rexrospeciively.

DISA 29.00
Interactive pointer driven machine code
disesrembler. 256k ram min. Disk only

MEGATOOLKIT £25.00
EPROM VERSION £40.00

Large toolkit with over 200 BASIC extensions. Many
amples supplied, extensive monwal.

FLIGHTDECK £15.00
QL lighe simularor. Works on unexpanded QL.

DISCOVER 2000
The painkess way to move files from QL 10 PC and
wice versa. As simple ax copying files berween 170
disks, 2568 ram min. disk only

MULTI DISCOVER

Also contains CPM, Unix CPIO, BBC micro,
‘Spectrum and SAM Coupe file transfer capabihity.
256k min. ram, disk only.

TEXTIDY £15.00
Assists Discover with conversion of tex files by
_sripping out control codes, etc. 256% ram min.

CONVERT-PCK £10.00

Used with Discover, allows transfer of bit mapped
PC clipart graphics tn PCX format (a common PC
‘file format) t0 QL screens or Page Designer pages.
Creare more clipart easily for the QL! 256 ram,
disk only.

QL-PCFILESBRVER 24.50

Link @ PC and a QL. va a serial port cable ond xe
{this software to enable the rwo 10 communicate - the
QL cam save its files on a PC's disk systems ond
print 10 the PC's serial port using normal baste
commands lke COPY. Works on unexpanded Ql.

(0248) 354023

BANTER £25.00

Simple to use banner maker which uses oualine fonts
‘for rood quality large text, Prints sideways across up
10 4 sheets of paper. Simple (0 use.on screen preview,
‘tc, Suits most Epson compatible printers.

IMAGE PROCESSOR 2 £15.00

Easy 10 use graphics system, fearuring usual
sraphica facilities, pixel zoom edtiing, image
‘enhancement, mode conversion exc. 512k, disk only.

SCREEN COMPRESSION £10.00
Reduce the amount of storage required by graphics
‘on disk or microdrive. 256k, disk only.

SCREEN DAZZLER £15.00

Uniike the usual screen savers, which simply rurn off
the display when the keyboard is not used for a
while, this ome can activate various graphical
displays, more ke the screen savers on other
computers, Now with extra disk of display routines!
Pointer environment compatible.

SCANNED CLIPART 1 £10.00

A 3 dish set full of compressed scanned pictures
(decompression program supplied of course) which
can be used in most QL programs (DTP, graphics.
etc}. Assorted collection, containing many pictures
‘you may not find in other collections. A bargain at
‘his price. 128k, disk only.

PRINTERMASTER £20.00
Select printer control codes quickly and simply from
fa menu to set fonts, page lengths, exc before printing
from programs lke Quill, tc. 128k, diskimdv

SQUIDQY ROUND THE WORLDEI2.30
‘An arcade game, idea! for the young at heart! 128k

S-GAMES PACK £12.50
‘5 hinking’ games in one bargain pack. 128k

OPEN GOLF £1250

Golf playing simulation, with choice of 50 courses
cack of 18 holes. 384k memory required, best used
with a colour monitor. Disk only,

GREY WOLF £1230
Submarine warfare simulation. where you are the
commander of a submarine In the Atlantic, an
‘exercice in strategy for entertainment purposes, 384k
RAM, 85 column monizor required. Disk only,

SUPPLIES

FLOPPY DISKS
DSHD DISKS
MICRODRIVES
DISK LABELS.

On printer rolt
ADDRESS LABELS
MDV LABELS
‘MOUSE MATS
Diak box dividers

in stock once more!

TERMS: Discounts - buy 2 programs, claim 5% off cach, buy 3 or more, claim 10% off cach program. Offer applies to software only. POSTAGE - Software is sent
(post free to UK addresses. Overseas please add £1.00 per program for postoge (maximum £3.00). Floppy disks and serial mouse - add postage of £2.50. Labels| mouse
mats - add postage of £0.50 peritem If only buying these. PAYMENT ~ in UK currency (pounds sterting) only please. Payment by cheque, Eurockeque, Postal Order,
cash (send by registered post). or by eredit card (Visa! Access! Mastercard! Eurocard! Connect). tn case of difficulty contact us first 0 arrange a payment method if
none of these is possible for you. Please make cheques, etc payable 19 DILWYN JONES COMPUTING (not to any other name or abbreviation please, our bank
‘prefers t thax wayl). If total order value is ters than £5.00, add £1.00 to total or we'll make a loss due 10 high bank charges

ACCESSING PRINTER DAT

Bangor, Gwynedd, GREAT BRITAIN - Dilwyn Jones

This article sets out to explain the file structure of the PRINTER_DAT printer driver used by
Quill, Archive and Abacus. A program is presented which prints to the screen all of the codes
used in the driver and in so doing, shows how you can access the driver for use in your own
programs, for example, or to write an alternative printer driver editor. The program listed
works with the Xchange versions of these printer drivers too, since the file format appears to
be the same.

The program listed uses no toolkit commands, it should work on all versions of the QL. If you
have toolkit 2 or other basic extensions toolkit, it should be possible to rewrite the program to
use some extensions such as string and byte fetching extensions to greatly simplify the
program.

First, I shall explain the file format used. It was quite tricky to work out the file format and I
hope I got it right since I do not have formal documentation on Quill.

4 bytes “prtl" characters used to identify printer driver
| byte total of lengths of code strings below, but if length bytes are 255, this
value is not added to this byte
10 bytes driver name, which is always 10 characters long, filled with extra
spaces to make it 10 characters
| byte port type
if port type = I or 2: seri or ser2 respectively
1 byte parity code (0=none, | =space,2=mark,3=odd,4=even
1 word baudrate, stored as 2 byte integer, MSB first
1S bytes spaces to pad to file position 34
if port type = 0: parallel or other non-serial port
1 byte length of name of printer port (e.g. 3 for PAR)
x bytes spaces to pad out to file position 34, where x is 17-(length of name of
printer port)
1 byte number of lines per page
1 byte number of characters per line
1 byte forms type, | for continuous, 0 for cut sheets
4 bytes appear to be spare, filled with spaces or nulls.

The following data all consist of strings containing codes for various printer functions. The
format is unusual in that the string consists of one byte for the length of the string rather than
2 bytes normally used on the QL. If the length byte is 0 or 255 (hex FF), there are no other
codes, 0 appears to represent NO CODES, or NONE as it appears in INSTALL_BAS. 255
appears to represent an inbuilt default value.

string end of line codes
string preamble codes

string postamble codes
string bold on codes

30

ACCESSING PRINTER_DAT - (CONT’D)

string bold off codes

string underline on codes
string underline off codes
string subscript on codes
string subscript off codes
string superscript on codes
string superscript off codes

Next comes the translate character strings. ‘The format of the strings is the same (byte for
length, followed by that number of codes). The first character after the length byte is the
character code translated from, and the remainder of the characters indicate what that first
character is translated to.

10 strings translate 1 to 10
I byte usually a linefeed code.

Note that the strings are in an unusual format. One byte indicates how many characters to
follow in that string. If that length byte is 0 it means ‘no codes for this function’. If the length
byte is 255 it means use an inbuilt default value, used for only a few cases. This does not get
added to the 'total of lengths of code string’ byte.

That lot was a bit of a mouthful. Now for the easy bit, the program to decode it all. I cannot
guarantee this will work on every printer_dat and xchange dat file, but it seems to work for
the ones I have tried with it. It asks for the filename of the printer driver file (if you just press
ENTER it uses the default of ’printer_dat’ on FLP1_). It reads it and then prints it to the
screen. Since there is a long list to print, it might scroll off the screen. To pause it to view the
firt half, press CTRL FS to freeze the screen momentarily.

You can use similar techniques to read printer_dat files for your own programs. The data ends
up in strings in this program and by reading the codes into strings in your programs, you can
simply send the codes to the printer with a PRINT statement when required. For example,
"PRINT #printer_channel,bold_on$;" to turn bold printing on.

HINT: The Psion programs allow you to specify a parallel printer port in place of the usual
SER or SER2. This program will print that out, of course. But some versions of the Psion
programs seem to have difficulty with the name PAR - they require this to be entered as
2PAR for some reason, I don’t know why the number TWO is required before the name. Of
course, if you use serial ports, you will not care (and not know) about this.

100 REMark PRINTER _DAT reader by Dilwyn Jones 1994

110 CLS: CLS #0

120 INPUT #0,’Enter name of printer driver (default PRINTER_DAT):’; driver$
130 IF driver$ = ” : driver$ = "FLP1_PRINTER_DAT’

140 OPEN _IN #3,driver$ e

150 ident$ =’ °: REMark 4 spaces

160 FOR a = 1 TO 4: ident$(a) = INKEYS$( #3)

170 IF ident$ <> ’prtl’: PRINT #0, Unsuitable file’ : STOP

180 code strings length = CODE(INKEYS$( #3))

190 driver_name$ = FILLS(’’,10)

31

ACCESSING PRINTER_DAT - (CONT'D)

200 FOR a = 1 TO 10: driver name$(a) = INKEY3$( #3)

210 PRINT’DRIVER NAME :‘sdriver_name$

220:

230 REMark get port details

240 port_type = CODE(INKEY$( #3))

250 IF port_type = 1 OR port_type = 2 THEN

260 REMark serial port

270 PRINT’PRINTER PORT — :SER’;port_type

280 parity = CODE(INKEYS( #3)) : PRINT ‘PARITY zs

290 SELect ON parity

300 =0:PRINT’NONE®

310 =1:PRINT’SPACE’

320 =2:PRINT’MARK’

330 =3:PRINT’ODD’

340 =4:PRINTEVEN’

350 END SELect

360 baudrate = 256*CODE(INKEY$( #3)) +CODE(INKEYS( #3))

370 PRINT ’BAUDRATE : *;baudrate

380 FOR a =1TO 15: temp$ = INKEY$( #3) : REMark skip the spaces
390 ELSE

400 REMark parallel or other type of port

410 PRINT’PRINTER PORT 5

420 portlen=CODE(INKEYS( #3)) : REMark name of port

430 FOR a =1TO portlen: PRINT INKEYS( #3);

440 PRINT

450 FOR a= 1 TO 17-portlen : temp$ = INKEY$( #3) : REMark skip spaces
460 END IF

470 lines_per_page = CODE(INKEY$(#3))

480 PRINT’LINES PER PAGE _ :’;lines_per_page

490 chars_per_ line = CODE(INKEY$( #3))

500 PRINT’CHARACTERS PER LINE: ’;chars_per_line

510 forms type = CODE(INKEY$( #3))

520 PRINT’FORMS TYPE ae
530 IF forms type = | THEN

540 PRINT’Continuous’

550 ELSE

560 PRINT’Cut’

570 END IF

580 FOR a = 1 TO 4: temp$ = INKEY$( #3) : REMark skip spaces

590:

600 REMark read code strings for end of line, pre/postamble, bold etc
610 PRINTEND OF LINE CODE _:’;

620 eol$ = FETCH_CODE STRING$: CODE_STRING col$

630 PRINT’PREAMBLE CODES __:’;

640 preamble$ = FETCH CODE STRINGS : CODE_STRING preamble$
650 PRINT’POSTAMBLE CODES __:’;

660 postamble$ = FETCH_CODE_STRING$ : CODE STRING postamble$
670 PRINT BOLD ON CODES 7

ACCESSING PRINTER_DAT - (CONT'D)

680 bold_on$ = FETCH CODE STRINGS: CODE STRING bold_on$
690 PRINT’BOLD OFF CODES — :’;

700 bold_off$ = FETCH CODE STRINGS: CODE_STRING bold_off$
710 PRINT’ UNDERLINE ON CODES. :’;

720 under_on$ = FETCH CODE STRINGS: CODE_STRING under_on$
730 PRINT’ UNDERLINE OFF CODES :’;

740 under_off$ = FETCH CODE ST RINGS: CODE_STRING under_off$
750 PRINT’'SUBSCRIPT ON CODES :’;

760 sub_on$ = FETCH CODE STRINGS: CODE_STRING sub_on$
7710 PRINT’ SUBSCRIPT OFF CODES :’;

780 sub_off$ = FETCH_CODE STRINGS : : CODE_ STRING sub_off$
790 PRINT’SUPERSCRIPT ON CODES :

800 sup_on$ = FETCH_CODE STRINGS: ‘coDE _STRING sup_on$
810 PRIN’ T’SUPERSCRIPT OFF CODES :

820 sup_off$ = FETCH_CODE_STRING$: ‘CODE_STRING sup_off$
830:

840 REMark translates 1 - 10

850 FOR tr = 1 TO 10

860 PRINT’TRANSLATE “tr;: °;

870 t$ = FETCH CODE STRINGS

880 IF LEN(t$)=1 THEN

890 CODE STRING t$

900 ELSE

910 PRINT’FROM ’;CODE(t$);’ (;t$(1);’) TO’;

920 CODE STRING t$(2 TO LEN(t$))

930 ENDIF

940 END FOR tr

950 CLOSE #3

960 :

970 DEFine PROCedure CODE_STRING (str)

980 LOCala

990 IF str = CHR$(255) THEN PRINT’DEFAULT’: RETurn

1000 IF str = CHR$(0) THEN PRINT’NONBE’: RETurn

1010 FORa = 1 TOLEN(str)

1020 PRINT CODEK(str(a));

1030 IF a < LEN(str) THEN PRINT’); : ELSE PRINT : END IF
1040 END FORa

eo END DEFine CODE_STRING

1070 DEFine FuNction FETCH_CODE_STRING$

1080 LOCal a,cd_length,temp$_

1090 cd_length = CODE(INKEYS( #3)

1100 IF cd_length = 0 THEN RETurn CHR$(0)

1110 IF cd length = 255 THEN RETurn CHR$(255)

1120 temp$ = FILLS$(’ ’,cd_length)

1130 FOR a = 1 TO cd_length : temp$(a) = INKEY$( #3)

1140 RETurn t temp$

1150 END DEFine 'EETCH_CODE STRINGS

33

90:TWA.

Im stillen Winkel 12 * 47169 Duisburg * Germany ia

typeset93-ESC/P2
Dedicated text87 printer drivers for all EPSON printers
with ESC/P2 including the new Styus 800 and the
upcoming Stylus 300. Supports the scalable fonts,
special characters ond block grophics for drowing
borders etc, DM 69,90

QMAKE
Pointer-driven Moke program for the GST/Quonta
Assembler pockoge. Very comfortoble, with mony
options {including library-building). OM 44,90

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HyperHELP for SuperBASIC

Instont help in SuperBASIC! It displays o list of
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Update with new monucl OM 16,~

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Brondnew version of the wellknown Monitor,
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BlackKnight - mouse-driven Chess program!
Yes, here it is - chess for the Pointer Environment! Moveoble,
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demo mode, setup, change sides, lood ond save gome, hint,
scrollable movehistory etc. 10 Levels of difficulty, giving the
computer between 5 seconds to 1 hour time to think
BlockKnight even thinks when its your tum. DM 119,90

The Lonely Joker Version 2!

Now six different games in one! Another three, even more
complex potiences hove been odded to the exsting three:
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Upgrade from V1 (double fun- 1/2 price) DM 29,~

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ond comfortable block handling ond entry. Many oddi-
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DM 169,-

Updote with new monual (useful if old version is
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Brondnew version with brandnew feotures! Selective
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DM 549,~

DM 28:
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Applications

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DataDesign V3 DM 149,

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QShong 0M 45,90

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THE LONELY JOKER I

Trafford, Alabama, USA - Bob Madaris

THE LONELY JOKER was reviewed in IQLR Vol. 2 No. 2.
Since then it has some major changes and a few minor ones.
They have added 3 more games to double the original 3 games.
This review is on Version 2.

THE LONELY JOKER was developed by HIT & DO Development
Team, Coimbra, Portugal in association with Jochen Merz Software, Germany. It was
compiled with Q Liberator from Liberation Software. The program package comes on a
single disk and includes a twelve page manual. There are screen dumps provided for each
game to illustrate that game. A high score list has been added and the top five scores are
saved to a file named TopFive lis.

The LONELY JOKER (LJ) is a solitaire card game based on six distinct patiences: Echelon,
Napoleon, Cascade, Spine, Crapaud, and Four in Hand.

The program requires QJump’s Extended Environment and the Jochen Merz’s Menu
Extensions which are included in the package. Playing the game really benefits from having a
mouse installed - although you can play with the keyboard alone. A memory expansion of at
least 384Kb is required to run the program. If you normally have the pointer environment
installed, all you need to do to run the program is to EXEC ’LJ’. If not, there is a boot
program included to LRUN. LJ is a multitasking program.

Some startup parameters may be defined by the user by using MenuConfig,the Jochen Merz
standard configuration utility, or CONFIG by QJump. These are included in the package. The
configurable parameters are: Initial game, Board color (black or green), Green color,
Warning beep, Max turns, Queen over king (Cascade only), Game directory, Score file. These
options and others are available within each game from pull down menus from a menu bar
across the top of the screen.

One of the original reviewer’s remarks about the green screen being too light has been taken
care of with the inclusion of the green color option. You can now select the standard green
screen or a darker green screen. This was much better to this reviewer, but I prefer the black
board. An option has been added allowing you to choose from five different designs of cards.
All of them are very nice graphic displays.

The LJ screen is divided in two areas: The upper one gives access to game control, the lower
one is the playing board. If you are using Qpac2, LJ can be put to sleep in a button. The Files,
Game, and Options items in the control area (top of screen) introduce pop-up menus with
sub-items. To select an item in the control area, all you need to do is move the pointer to it
and [HIT] it, or select it directly with a selection key. The Game item allows you to choose
one of the six games or to re-deal. The Files item allows you to Save and Load games. Only
Napoleon and Four in Hand games can be saved. You may specify different devices and sub-
directories by “hitting” them with the pointer or by inserting their names in the appropriate
fields. Also, the score table can be viewed and saved.

The Games

Echelon 1: This is the standard solitaire (patience) card game . The game can be played
against time taken to solve, but the real enjoyment to me in any solitaire game is beating the
game (All cards placed in the foundations). You may use an option to limit turns through the

35

LONELY JOKER II - (CONT’D)

deck to 2 or 3 turns. Other options: Auto finish, Time, Black or green board, Warning beep,
Pack of cards.

Echelon 3: This game is similar to Echelon 1, except three cards are turned over from the
closed deck. The same options are available as Echelon |. There is no limit to the number of
times the deck is turned over. In the original review appeared the following: (Bob Dy! has
completed this game in | minute and 35 seconds playing with a mouse. He challenges anyone
to beat this time). This is my favorite of the six. I do not have a mouse to challenge Bob, but
found ile games are very playable with the keyboard and the keyboard instructions in the
manual.

Napoleon: This game known as the "King of Patiences" was supposedly created by Napoleon
during his exile on the isle of Sainte Helene. In this game, all cards are shown face up (there is
no closed deck). The player has to group 4 complete suits in their foundations, placed in the
center. The starting cards of the foundations are randomly set by LJ. This reviewer had no
luck with this game and I am not sure that the instructions are adequate for someone who
does not know this game. I must admit I spent less time with this game than the others. The
options are the same as in Echelon except Restore is added to allow you to start the same
game over so as to use a different strategy.

Cascade: This is the simplest of the games to play, but is hard to finish. The purpose of the
game is to move all cards from the ranks to the pile. The cards are laid down, initially, in
seven open ranks (with 5 cards each), a closed stack, and the pile (which starts with one card).
This pushes Echelon 3 as my favorite of the games. I have not beat the game yet, but I have
got down to one card left. When you are as far as you can go, the game lets you know how
many cards are left. The options: Black or Green board, Pack of cards, Queen over King.

SPINE: This game is a double deck (104 cards) solitaire. As in the others the aim of the game
is to place the 104 cards in suit foundations. For every suit the foundation placed in the left
side of the board is formed in ascending order, ie Ace to King. The right side will be a
descending one, ic King to Ace. The central group of cards is the spine, surrounded by twelve
cards: 4 cards at the corners, and the other 8 in the interior positions. The remaining cards are
put in the closed deck. This is a difficult game to play, but is very enjoyable. The options are
the same as Echelon with an added option for the program to fill the empty spaces in the
interior positions with a card from the stack.

CRAPUAD: This game is also played with two decks of cards, and two foundations must be
formed. In this game both foundations are in ascending order. Although the object of the
game is the same as SPINE, the layout and rules are different. It too is very difficult but
enjoyable. The options are the same as SPINE except no auto filling of spaces.

Four in Hand: As in Napoleon all cards are faced up. They are initially placed in 8 ranks. As
usual, you must build up the 4 suit foundations on the top left side of the board. On the
bottom left side is the player's hand, on which one can place up to four cards. This game is
difficult, but easier to understand than Napoleon. The options are the same as in Napoleon.

In all six games you move the pointer with the mouse or the keyboard. The pointer here is a
very nice graphic display of an empty hand. Moving a card is easy: place the hand on the card
you want to move and pick it up with the (Hit) button or (Space) Key. When you have picked
up a card, the pointer will change from an empty hand to a hand with a black or red card
(depending on what suit it is). The LONELY JOKER is a well designed program with better
than usual graphic displays on the screen. It will provide many hours of entertainment . I think
anyone would enjoy some, if not all , of the games in this package.

LONELY JOKER II - (CONT’D)

| literally had to tear myself away to get some work done including writing this review. J have
always enjoyed playing solitaire with cards since I was young (It was taught to me by my dad).
It is so much easier playing with the computer doing the dealing etc. This program will
definitely cause me to buy a mouse and software.

An Author’s Response

Newmachar, Aberdeen, Scotland - Norman Dunbar

As the author of WinBack, | read with interest the review of version 2.20 by Don Walterman,
in volume 3, issue 5 and would like to comment on his quibbles.

The ESC key does indeed ‘not work’ at many places in the program. I am not a Minerva user
and do not know all the ins and outs of using it, however, | agree that being able to escape
from an edit would be useful. WinBack uses the EDIT$ function in the Turbo Toolkit and this
does not seem to allow ESC to be used.

Many of the files in the various C68 releases have linefeed characters as part of their names.
This is the reason for a filename ’spreading’ over more than one line on the screen. I did not
think of this problem when writing WinBack, but, in the majority of cases, these files are
simply on the disc to make the directory listing look good and invariably serve no useful
purpose. Removing the offending file from the C68 directory will cure the problem, but
pressing SHIFT and F4 together WILL redraw the display and also cure the problem. See
Section 7 in the manual on page 5 for details.

T have given some thought to Don’s ’wish list’ of a utility to assist in making a partial restore
and might just do something like that in a future release. If Don would care to get in touch, via
Dilwyn Jones as I have recently moved house, with as many details as possible, I will try to
accomodate his ’wish list’. WinBack is not a great seller in the QL market place, but who
cares, you have to keep your users happy !

For your information, the current release of WinBack is 2.22 and the changes over version
2.20 are:

Version 2.21 writes more information to the listing file. The details of all the settings at the
time the backup was started are given. The listing file is appended to if it already exists. This
is done so that multiple backup sessions can be recorded and came about when I had backed
up two areas of my own hard disc but only got one listing (I always list to a file on ram disc). If
you list to a printer there is no problem.

Better error trapping is done on the listing file and READ ONLY etc errors are trapped when
attempting to open the listing device. If a listing file fills up the device it is on, you are given
the opportuntiy to abort the backup or carry on without a listing. The original listing file will
be complete and correct up until then.

Version 2.22 was produced as | moved house in May 1993 and had to update the Credits
screen. In addition, the title at the top of all screens has been changed to reflect the fact that
WinBack is no longer a Miracle Systems only hard disc backup utility. It has been tested on
both Miracle and Falkenburg systems. I hope to be able to test it out soon using Ron
Dunnet’s hard disc interface & software, just as soon as Dilwyn Jones buys one !

Sf

An Author’s Response - (CONT’D)

In addition to changing the title, the colours were changed. Some types of mono monitors do
not show white ink on red paper, my spare one only shows black ink on any colour paper or
any colour ink on black paper. Now everyone should be able to see the title !

As to future enhancements, WinBack will probably be altered to a Pointer Environment
version, Don should be able to ESC out of most things then. Watch this space and Dilwyn
adverts for details. I should state, however, that I am currently very busy with other work and
it may be some time before I get round to it.

As only the screen layouts have been set up so far, get in touch (via Dilwyn Jones or directly)
if you have any requests. | can’t promise to incorporate all of them, but you never get
anything if you don’t ask. What I will do, however, is answer all letters received.

May all your backups never be needed !

Products for HP DeskJet Owners

Newport, Rhode Island, USA - Bob Dyl

Recently two products have come to our attention. The first is a high quality laser paper
produced by WEYERHAEUSER named FIRST CHOICE. It is by far the best paper I have
ever used, to the degree that I cannot tell the difference between a page printed on my
DeskJet 500 or my LaserJet IIP, the quality is that good. Where there is quality there’s usually
high prices. FIRST CHOICE sells for $6.49 US per ream at Office Max, and I’ve seen prices
up to $10.00 US in other stores. If you REQUIRE quality then this is the paper for you.

The second item is revolutionary in concept, it’s named "RESERVE Ink Jet Cartridge
System" , as its name implies it is a replacement for the expensive HP cartridges we all must
buy. What’s unique, is that you get (1) printhead and (5) snap in ink cartridges, unlike the HP
cartridge that’s all in one. 99% of the time there is nothing wrong with the printhead yet we
throw it away or attempt the sloppy mess of refilling the empty cartridge.

I purchased the RESERVE package for the cost of $50.00 US plus tax, at the going price of
HP cartridges I saved $40.00 US and the quality is as good as HP’s ink, the masters for this
issue was printed using a RESERVE cartridge. As far as the price goes, I haven’t been able to
locate it at office supply stores (I purchased mine from a Wholesale Club) as of yet.

RESERVE is manufactured by Pelikan, Inc. (they are a respected second source producer of
printer ribbons) of Franklin, TN, USA their telephone number is 800 874 5898 .

GOING ONLINE with your QL

Troy, Michigan, USA - Don Walterman

I’ve been asked to explain how to use your QL to call a bulletin board system (BBS). 1 had
problems trying to follow a structured approach to explaining everything necessary to use
your QL online. So, I decided to just ramble in a couple directions, explaining as I go.
Hopefully you'll get the information you need to use your QL successfully with a modem.

I'll try not to assume you are familiar with modems, terminal software and etc. Along the way

38

GOING ONLINE - (CONT'D)

you'll probably see QBOX-USA mentioned a few times. Since I’m the CO-SYSOP there, I
need to take the advantage to encourage everyone to call.

What is a BBS? A BBS is a computer system run for the purpose of allowing computer users
to exchange messages, discuss topics of interest, provide support for hardware and software
problems and distribute public-domain software. There currently is a network of QL based
BBSs running across Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. These QLs are
running a software package called QBOX. This system allows users on any QBOX BBS to
communicate with any user on any other QBOX system. This means a call to your local
QBOX system can put you in touch with a wealth of QL expertise. I’ve already exchanged
messages with Ron Dunnett of QUBBESoft, Davide Santachiara of ERGON Development,
Laurence Reeves of Minerva fame, Tony Firshman of TF Services and many other helpful
QL users. Quanta also is available by way of QBOX.

To those vendors not calling QBOX, why don’t you? QBOX provides a pool of current QL
users that would love to discuss (and maybe buy?) your products. Where else but the QL
community could you directly talk to the vendors and software/hardware developers? A
current case in point is the rapid development of QTPI/QeM terminal software for the QL.
Wayne Weedon has continually asked for feedback about QTPI/QeM to relay back to
Jonathan Hudson. Those individuals that took the time to reply found their input used to
rapidly improve the programs.

What do you need to call a BBS? You'll need your QL, a modem cable, a modem, access to a
phone line, software to communicate with the BBS and a BBS you are interested enough in to
call. Lets look at each item in a little more detail

Your QL: Any QL can successfully be used to call a BBS. My first QL that I used to call BBS’s
was an original 128k QL with microdrives only. With this base QL I was able to call many
bulletin boards to exchange messages and download files. I was lucky enough to have a local
PC based BBS that provided a SIG (Special Interest Group) area for Timex/Sinclair
computers. The original QL has more capacity than the first computer I used to contact a
BBS. I started with a ZX81 and a 300 baud modem. The original QL has some infamous
challenges. One of the biggest challenges is Sinclair’s marginal implementation of RS232
ports. In the early QL days it was easy to experience buffer overrun when communicating
with a BBS, This was due to a combination of two factors. The first is the buggy RS232
implementation in the original IPC chip. It was very easy to overrun the tiny buffer in the IPC
(Intelligent Peripheral Controller). There was no way to clear it without completely resetting
the QL. This problem has been largely overcome by Hermes. This IPC upgrade has cleaned
up the RS232 ports dramatically. In cleaning up the code more space was made available for
buffering data coming in from the modem. The second factor is modem buffering. Until
recently most modems on the market were unbuffered, That means as the data was received
by the modem it immediately passed it on to the QL whether the QL was ready to receive it
or not. Newer high speed modems are buffered. This allows the QL to pull a handshake line
telling the modem the QL is busy (hold the data in the modem buffer until the QL is able to
process some more). The visible result of this problem would be lost or garbled characters on
your display or retry errors when transferring a file. When you combine these two factors, you
can see how frustrating it was in the early QL days.

The cable: This is a good point to stray off track a little and discuss RS232. Many people think

RS232 is a standard. Unfortunately the RS stands for Recommended Specification. Since the
recommendation has never been formally accepted as a standard, vendors have been able to

39

GOING ONLINE - (CONT’D)

freely implement any, all, some or none of the RS232 proposal. This results in multiple non-
standard connectors, handshaking with all kinds of different signal lines and polarities and
general chaos trying to connect different products. The company I work for makes more than
200 different RS232 cables just to connect different products they make to each other! At
work we have a thick cable manual that lists many of the cable pin-outs since we still end up
having to modify the cable depending on individual circumstances. The reason I described this
mess is that I’ve had QL users tell me they have gathered together various QL articles giving
cable pin-outs to use for a modem. The pin-outs usually disagree with each other. When I was
asked ’which one is right’ the answer is all of them for that individual use. None of them may
be right for you.

Things are not as awful as I've made them sound. I just wanted to explain why there just is no
simple answer that is always right. There are a couple of signal lines to change when a cable
doesn’t work. It usually only takes a few minutes to figure out once you have a little
experience. Luckily in the QL modem world the possibilities are manageable. I've seen two
modem connectors (DB25 and DB9). The almost standard QL modem port is ser2_. This
makes building a cable fairly easy with a little practice. The following is a sample list of of
cable wiring for a couple modems I’ve used:

QL ser2_ US Robotics 14400 Fax Everex EV-946
US/German Hayes Smartmodem 2400
1 7 5
2 2 3
3 3 2.
4 4 4
5 5 6
6 no connection no connection
7 no connection no connection
8 no connection no connection
9 no connection no connection

If you are having some problems getting going, I’m offering to build and test a cable with
your modem and your choice of terminal software. See details at the end of this article.

A modem: The modem will convert the RS232 signal from the QL into analog sounds to
transmit on the phone line. At the other end of the phone line the modem does the reverse
converting sounds to RS232 that the BBS can understand. The modems on each end translate
in both directions. They MOdulate/DEModulate the signal. Modems at 2400 baud and above
are fairly standardized. If you get two modems that claim to implement the same V.xx
protocol you generally will communicate (as always there are exceptions). The V.xx protocols
describe how the modem will modulate the signal. The V.xx protocols do not describe the
RS232 commands the QL sends to the modem.

For example the command to dial a number on a Hayes compatible modem is ATDT plus the
phone number while on a Racal-Vadic modem it is D plus the phone number while on a
Hewlett-Packard modem its just carriage return plus the phone number. Most terminal
programs let you configure a dial string so you can use whatever you need. If you haven’t yet
bought a modem look for one that is Hayes compatible. Hayes has become the defacto
common command set. You should be able to use any async modem on the market. If it isn’t
Hayes compatible it will take a few modifications to the software.

40

GOING ONLINE - (CONT’D)

The modems to stay away from are those described as sync only or leased line only or 4 wire
only (You aren’t likely to run into these). These are not designed for BBS use and will not
work in our situation. A few comments about modem speed. The current modems on the
market are 14400 baud. Since they are buffered your QL would communicate at 19200 baud
with them. There are faster ones on the market, 16800 baud , 28800 baud and (V.fast). These
modems (those faster than 14400) are very expensive and the real consideration is that they
are not standardized at all. They will generally only communicate at their fastest speed with
another similar modem. Add to that the maximum QL baud rate of 19200 and you can see
why I suggest you stay with something 14400 or slower. At the other end of the speed range
are the 300 baud modems. These are generally available for about $5 at swap meets and flea
markets. At a recent show I saw 1200 baud modems for $2! Some new 2400 baud modems are
available for $9. Most PC based boards will no longer allow callers at 300 baud. Most people
type at roughly 300 baud. You can get by at this speed if you rarely usc a modem and never
transfer files of any size. If you are making a long distance call, the cost of using 300 baud can
be large. Most people can read at 1200 to 2400 baud so that seems to be a reasonable speed. If
you transfer large files or just capture all your mail into a message buffer then the faster the
modem the better for you and your phone bill. QBOX-USA supports calls at 2400, 1200 and
300 baud with no restrictions on 300 baud users.

I believe the current best buy for QL modem users is the Everex EV-946 modem from Halted
Specialties. This modem is selling for $8.95 brand new. Everex was a respected computer
vendor that has gone bankrupt. These modems were on the production line but never got put
into cases. They are roughly 3” x 6" x 2". I’ve tested them enough to be able to recommend
them. The Everex EV-946 is Hayes compatible. These modems are not for everyone. You
must be willing to use a bare circuit board or build your own case. You need to get your own
12 volt AC adapter. You need to make your own cable. There is no warranty on this modem.

Software: Somehow you need to get the QL and the BBS to speak to each other. Here you
need a good communications package or sometimes called a terminal emulator. The term
terminal emulator comes from early computer useage. Before PCs, terminals were connected
to computers using modems. As PCs came into usc, software was written that allowed a PC to
be substituted for a terminal Common terminal emulations include VT100 and VT52 (both
old DEC terminals), ANSI and ASCII (sometimes called dumb terminal). ANSI emulation
provides additional capabilities including color, low resolution graphics and full screen
editors. ASCII provides just the opposite, no extra features just the capability to print text.
There are many communication packages available for the QL. I have seen many of them but
by no means ail of them. I'll confine my comments to a few recent public domain programs
that have been widely praised by QL modem users.

QTPI - This is the pointer terminal program written by Jonathan Hudson. This program is
loaded with features. I use this program exclusively on my own system. QTPI supports
ASCII, XModem, YModem, ZModem, Kermit and Sealink file transfer. QTPI is constantly
being improved and is in wide use. QTPI works reliably at 19200 baud. QTPI requires the
pointer environment (versions available from Quanta have been tested to work). QTPI also
requires memory expansion. Latest known version is 1.26. I consider this the program to
compare all others against.

QeM - QeM is the first terminal program available from Jonathan Hudson. It does not
require the Pointer Environment. It also uses the same file transfer libraries that QTPI uses
(the XPR libraries). QeM is still being updated for those users that don’t use the Pointer
Environment. QeM will just run on a bare 128k QL but won’t be able to use the XPR

41

GOING ONLINE - (CONT’D)

libraries. Memory expansion is strongly recommended. | used this program until QTPI
arrived. A full review of QeM version 2.30 was printed in IQLR volume 2 number 6. QeM is
now up to version 4.1 (or higher by the time you read this).

QLTerm - This current program is by Jan Bredenbeek and should not be confused with older
terminal programs with similar names. Jan describes this program as small and simple. It does
not try to be all things to all people. This program is ideal for someone just learning
telecommunications or someone using abase 128k QL. QLTerm supports Xmodem file
transfers. It supports ANSI], VT52 and ASCII terminal emulation. QLTerm works well at all
QL baud rates including 19200.

These three programs all are very well documented and supported by their authors. The
programs are public domain and available from many sources including QBOX-USA.

The BBS: All of this prep work is wasted unless you have somewhere to call. There are many
bulletin board systems for the QL. Some of these run on a QL software package called
QBOX. QBOX-USA is one of these systems. QBOX systems will work with any QL terminal
program since QBOX was written to communicate with a dumb terminal. QBOX supports
XModen, Telelink and SEAlink file transfers. If you have a PC bulletin board system you'd
like to call, you can then take advantage of the ANSI feature of some QL terminal programs.
ANSI terminal emulation gives you color displays, low resolution graphics and a full screen
text editor. Since ANSI expects a 16 color display, some color combinations are difficult to
display on the QL. I use ANSI whenever possible. A BBS functions as somewhat of a cross
between a party line phone and a mailbox. You can join in conversations about various topics
or leave private mail to an individual. Remember a BBS is not the mail though. A private
message still can be read by the SYSOP and anyone else with sufficient capabilities. Many
PC based BBSs charge fees for the use of their system. I haven’t found any QBOX boards that
charge any fees. This is another example of the QL community helping each other out. Each
of these boards are taking care of their expenses without asking the callers to help out. Why
not give your local QBOX board a call and see what they have to offer?

The offer. If you want to start using your QL with a modem and you are having trouble
getting everything working, I'll build a cable and configure a copy of your terminal software.
You'll have to send me your modem (if you live in North America), tell me what terminal
program you want to use and provide a few details about your QL system. I'll return your
package as fast as my work schedule allows. If you have specific questions about QLs and
modems feel free to ask me. You can contact me through IQLR.

Halted Specialties Info: phone number (800) 442-5833
order 14467 2400 baud modem $8.95
order 14041 AC adapter for #14467 $1.50 (You'll need to solder a 3/32" mini

plug on. available from Radio Shack)

Some QBOX Bulletin Board Systems:

QBOX-USA 810 2549878 up to 2400 baud

TF Services 0344 890987 up to 14400 baud add 01144 prefix to call from USA

4th Dimension 0202 600305 add 01144 prefix to call from USA home of
QTPI/QeM releases

42

TF SERVICES

MINERVA

The ULTIMATE operating system upgrade

MKII MINERVA with battery for 256 bytes ram
CRASHPROOF clock & Philips [2C bus for interfacin;
Can autoboot from battery backed ram. Quick start-up.

Other features common to MK I/MK I
DEBUGGED operating system/ autoboot on _reset/
Multiple Basic/ faster scheduler-graphics (10% of
lightning)-string handlingy/ WHEN ERROR) 2nd screen/
TRACE/ foreign keyboard drivers/ ’warm’ fast reset/
Auto reboot after power failure. V1.97 now with built in
Multibasic and split OUTPUT baud rates with Hermes.

Ist upgrade free. Otherwise £3 (+ manual £5 if requd)
(send rom, 3 IRCs & NEW disk/3 mdvs)

(ra... ga1ceaoytes31 MKIL....£66(063)1667) )

BOTH VERSIONS GOLD CARD COMPATIBLE

QL SPARES

Faulty QL board ( no plug-in chips). £11(£10)[£16]

Kybd memb.£9.50(9)[10.50] Circuit diags .£3.50)(£3)[£4]
68008 cpu .......£8.50(£8){11] 1377 PAL.......£3.50(£3)[£4]
JM ROM...£10.SQ(£10)[£11] Power supply .£17(£16)[£26}
8302 ULA.£10.50(£10)(£11] surface .......[£21]
8049 IPC....£8.50(£7.50)[£9} 8301 ULA.£10.50(£10)[£11)

BULLETIN BOARD

QBBS - The first UK QL scrolling bulletin board.
Intemational echomail & the whole King James’ bible!

(+44)344-890987 V21/23/22/22bis

HERMES

A replacement QL co-processor for
the QLs awful IPC 8049

- Do you get keyboard bounce?
+ Do you find fast serial input unreliable?
+ Do you want to connect a modem at 19200bps

If you can say YES to any of these,
then you need HERMES

+ 19200bps RELIABLE serial input - NO QCONNECT.
+ Independent input baud rates - use serial mouse & print
+ Stops keyboard bounce (unwanted repeat chrs)

- Improves “fuzzy’ and ‘random’ sound

+ Provides extra input/output lines

+ Key click

Fitting is a simple job. Simply remove the QL top (8
screws) and replace the chip marked "8049" or °8749°
next to microdrive 1.

£26(£24)[£27] incl manual/software

[°C Interfaces

The PC bus was designed by Philips to simplify
interfacing. Minerva MKII clock is driven by an PC
chip, & a connector allows connection of other circuits.
Our extemal circuits will interconnect wiithout leads.

Parallel Interface Up to 4 can be connected powered
by the QL. Each gives 16 input/output lines. Can be
used wherever logic level signals are required

eg model train controllers. - £26(£2A) [£27]
Analogue Interface Up to 4 can be connected &
powered off QL. Each gives 8 analogue to digital
inputs, 2 digitaanalogue outputs. For temp
measurement, sound sampling etc...£31.50 (£29) [£30]
Data_sheets. .... £2.50 (£2) [£3]
Control _software/mannal £2.50 (£2) [£3]
(First interface purchase includes free 15D/9D lead)

Prices include airmail post & packing, & zero VAT rated outside the EC. Prices are: EC except UK (Europe)

{Outside Europe] Ring for UK prices. Payment can be by Mastercard/Visa/Eurocard/£ cheque/moncy order/bank
JOT Eurocheques) Any customs duty ctc customer's responsibilit

draft drawn on UK bank branch, or cash!

Holly Corner, Priory Road, ASCOT, Berks, SL5 8RL

Tel: (+44)344-890986

Fax: (+44)344-890987

MasterCard

Essex. CM7 5BU. Tel/Fax: 0376 347852
“24h = 7 Day. Week Service...

PD & Shareware Software
QL Emulator AMIGA V3.21 (3 Disks) ...
C68 Compiler Runtimes (3 Disks)
C68 Compiler Source Code (2 Disks)
MicroEMACS V3.1] (2 Disks)
GNU Text Utilities (2 Disks) ...

SPECIAL 2 Molecular Graphics V5.11 ...
SPECIAL 3 XLisp V1.4a C F
SPECIAL 4 QPACer (Pac? Boot Creator)
SPECIAL S5'C' Tutorial . os

SPECIAL 6 Lib QPTR V3. 00.

SPECIAL 7 Lib CPORT V1.22 ..0..0000...
SPECIAL 8 QRactal Screens Demo ...
SPECIAL 9 QL Home Finance ...

SPECIAL 10 ZM1+ SPECTRUM Emulator ...
SPECIAL 11 Lib CURSES V1.01 ...

SPECIAL 12 ELVIS Editor V1.6 .....

SPECIAL 13 Text 'N' Graphix Demo ..
SPECIAL 14'C' Prog Tools 1...

SPECIAL 15'C’ Debugging Tools ..

SPECIAL 16 Ergon Development Demo Disk ...
SPECIAL 17 German to English Wordlist .
SPECIAL 18 QDesign Demo .......

SPECIAL 19 D.J.Walker Demo Disk
SPECIAL 20 DBAS Database Package
SPECIAL 21 FTC II Demo .....

SPECIAL 22 QL Hard Disk ...

SPECIAL 23 PSION Xchange ..

SPECIAL 24 SPECULATOR '93 .

SPECIAL 25 QLIPER Disk ...

PD Disks | to 14

contains a BOOT program that RUNS the Menu. Each
program RUNS from the Menu unless otherwise stated.)

QITALY Disk Magazine Issue 15 to 25..................£1.00p each
(Each Disk contains | Issue of the QITALY Magazine.)

All prices include medium but not P&P. Please refer to P&P
guide below. Disks are 3.5in DS/DD.

P&P Guide for PD & Shareware

UK Euro Zl Z2 Qty UK Euro Zi! 22
Lp £p £p tp £LpfLpfLpetp
0.50 1.00 1.50 1.75 10-12 1.25 2.50 3.00 3.25
0.75 1.50 2.00 2.25 13-15 1.50 3.00 3.50 3.75
1.00 2.00 2.50 2.75 16-18 1.75 3.50 4.00 4.25

New Q.L. Hardware
Gold Card: 16MHz 68000, 1920K RAM, Battery Backed
Clock, Toolkit 2, Disk Interface, All Trump Card Facilities
Includes A4 Manual... Rane £225.00p

QEP 3 EPROM Programmer: Will program 2716 -> 27512
5V MOS & CMOS Eproms. Built in Software. Includes AS
DBI ssscsassscavesssenecerccnviviaeossvaes ‘i -----£120.00p

Trump Card: 768K RAM, Toolkit 2, Disk Interface, Dynamic
RAM Disk, Printer Buffer. Includes A4 Manual.............£95.00p

ExpandeRAM 512: 512K RAM with through port to connect
other peripherals i.e. Disk Interface, Eprom Board.........£45.00p

ExpandeRAM 0: 0K RAM, as above except User supplies
RAM chips (8=256K 16=S12K)...scccsssscsseone £20.00p

Twin 720K Disk Drives: Fully Cased with intemal Power
Supply Unit... — = £100.00p

Twin 1.44mb Disk Drives: ee Cased with intemal Power
Supply Unit... SRS: Med .£150.00p

Twin 3.2mb Disk Drives: Fully Cased with internal Power
Supply Unit. .£200.00p
1 Year Warranty on all New Hardware, 2 Year Warranty on Gold Card

Special Package Deal
Gold Card + Twin 3.2mb Disk Drive Unit...

Gold Card + Twin 1.44mb Disk Drive Unit..................
Gold Card + Twin 720K Disk Drive Unitt.............---.-.-+

Trump Card + Twin 720K Disk Drive Unit...
All prices exclude Postage & Packing

2nd User Hardware & Software
Inchides Disk Drives, Monitors (Colour & Gm), Memory
Expansion, Disk Interfaces, Keyboards & Interfaces, Printers,
Leads etc. All types of Commercial Software including Games,
Front Ends, Utilities, Languages etc. Back Issues of
QLUser/World & QUANTA. A selection of QL related Books
also stocked. Blank 3.5in DS/DD & DS/HD Diskettes. S.A.E.
or ILR.C. for current Stock List.

New Hardware in Pipeline
Currently working on 2 new products for the QL as follows:-
QUBIDE: IDE Hard Disk Interface. Will allow connection of
an IDE Hard Disk upto 120mb to the QL. Software built in.
Plugs into QL's ROM slot.
FAST-NET: Vastly improved network, at least 10 times faster
than existing QL network. Also allows networking between
QL and ATARI ST running QDOS.

Payment Methods
‘Cheques, (in UK Pounds drawn on UK Bank), Postal Orders,
International P.O.'s and Eurocheques (in UK Pounds) payable

tO.............!+ QUBBESoft P/D UK Cash is also acceptable.

Catalogue
S.AE. or Intemational Reply Coupon for latest Issue.

(EEC) (EEC)

W.N. Richardson & Co.

18-21 Misbourne House, Chiltern Hill
Chalfont St. Peter, Bucks, Great Britain SL9 9UE

Tel: 0753 888866 * Fax: 0753 887149 * Home: 094 873796 * Mobile: 0850 597650

STOP PRESS

DRIVES FROM IMb TO 80Mb (plus)
_ 1Mb, 2Mb and 4Mby
| ECONOMY MULTI-COMPUTER FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

This disk drive is suitable for use with;

SINCLAIR QL
(N.B. 4Mb for Gold Card users)

| Cost effective SPECTRUM 48k, SPECTRUM+

| Easy to install |] SPECTRUM +2 (Grey, needs +D interface)
| SPECTRUM +2 (Black), SPECTRUM +3
IBM COMPATIBLE PC's

The economy disk drive is available with 1Mb, 2Mb or 4Mb
(unformatted capacities) and allows you to use the same drive on
many different computers. For example, if you have a QL and a
PC, with the correct leads you may use the drive on both, saving
money and space. DUPLEX twin drive units are also available
(see below for more information).

The drives are supplied complete with an internal cable to connect
to your computer(s) and units are supplied with either 1 or 2 drives
in a compact single case, ready to use.

PRICING PRICES INCLUDE VAT |
CAPACITY: : mane i Duplex2. Duplex4 |
SINGLE DRIVE |. -&¢ eee | |
TWIN DRIVES [2£9 “E1715

|

Bare drives are usually available: IMb @ £28, 2Mb @ £38, 4Mb @ £75
DIY - With case, PSU and leads: 1Mb @ £39, 2Mb @ £49

HARD DISK DRIVES

SPECIAL OFFER WHILE STOCKS LAST
20Mb kits - £258, 40Mb kits - £298
80Mb kits - £350
Consists of HDD, interface, contoller card and
expansion card, to assemble the above with your
GOLD CARD. For vertical or horizontal mounting.

NEdesign v2

- the one and only vector drawing program

- many free fonts and clipart

- hish quality output on your printer

- support of high resolution screens (QVME, QXL)
- preview editing (filled etc.)

- bitmaps can be included in drawing

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- support of automatic & manual kerning

LINEdesign v2 is faster than before, [eis ne

supplicd with more fonts. supports + eld epot of 4 es ary ein 18.
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i i[ [ els _ SSS Ed
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} if Nf i Jf

OBOX-USA BBS

Utica, Michigan, USA -John J. Impellizzeri

QBox-USA is a computer bulletin board system (BBS) set up by QL enthusiasts in the US for
all QL enthusiasts in North America (although we welcome callers from anywhere). We
maintain a link (Fidonet) with European BBS’s that carry QL related message areas. With
QBox-USA North American QL users can keep in touch with our fellow QL users in Europe
and keep up with the latest developments for the QL and QDOS. There are also file areas
with many programs available for download. There is NO charge to use QBox-USA. Your
only cost is the phone call to the system.

To borrow a line from an old song, ‘What a long strange trip it’s been...”

That pretty much describes getting QBox-USA set up and running from the first time it was
considered and talked about in Newport, Rhode Island, in June 1993 until the system that is
online today.

Long because it seemed like forever trying to learn the software which is scattered among
about a half-dozen different programs that make up the various parts of the QBox system.
Strange because most of these programs are still in a ’beta’ test state with limited or outdated
documentation. Strange also due to a few problems that snuck in during a mail exchange with
our host BBS in England. To paraphrase Murphy: ’The programmer will have never seen a
bug quite like yours’.

The system runs entirely on a Sinclair QL. One of the easier parts was getting all the
hardware set up and going. With a few modifications a standard QL can run reliably for long
periods of time although there have been a few system crashes. A few due to me learning by
experimenting and a few that I can only chalk up as random glitches.

All of the hardware that makes up this sytem was extra or surplus equipment that was
donated by people who wanted to take part in the European Fido echos. Before setting up
this system, we had been individually calling the European BBS’s. Besides duplicating efforts
it was expensive. About the only cost involved so far has been the telephone line installation
and of course the monthly phone bill. This is still much cheaper than before due to the fact
that the mail files are sent compressed and late at night. Currently we call our host BBS in
England (TF Services) once or twice a week to exchange mail using a high speed modem.
Most calls take just a few minutes to transfer 100K bytes or so of messages.

Since the system runs from floppy disks, storage space can be a little tight. (We had no extra
hard drives or interfaces laying around). While QBox-USA was intended primarily to take
part in the message exchange with QL users in Europe, we also wanted to try and maintain a
few file areas containing useful public domain software available for download to North
American users. We are investigating a few ways of cheaply and simply adding more storage
space.

We try and keep the latest PD stuff online here. If there is something you have heard about
and it is not here, whether new or old, leave a message to me or Don Walterman and we'll see
if we can get a hold of it or maybe we already have it and can make it available here for you.

For now though most of the confusion has cleared up, Mr. Murphy has been banished (or
least kept at bay) and I’m settling into a regular routine maintaining the system and starting to
have fun with it. Despite the confusion, hair-pulling and cursing of the computer gods it has
been worth it Comments, good or bad, are always welcome!

47

QBOX - USA BBS - (CONT’D)

I do have to thank the following people, without them the system wouldn't be running and you
wouldn’t be reading this! Don Walterman, Tony Firshman, Jan Bredenbeek, Bob Dyl, Lester
Wareham and Chris Fowler.

In this part of the article I will attempt to explain how to use, and some of the features of, the
QBox-USA Bulletin Board System (BBS). As the System Operator (sysop), | hope to be able
to explain this without hopelessly confusing a brand new user. | apologize if this is extremely
boring to an experienced BBS user. What I won't be describing is how to use a
communications program to connect with QBox. That is the subject of another article. 1 will
start with once you have made a successful connection and take it from there. Also please
note that while there are quite a few BBS’s using the QBox software (mostly in Europe, |
believe we're the first in the USA), I will only be describing the system that I am the operator
of. Other QBox systems will be similar but may have more or fewer, or different options and
commands, depending on how the sysop has set up his system and what hardware he has.
However, once you learn to use one Qbox BBS, you should have no trouble using any other.

Okay, so you’ve dialed QBox-USA and the modems have connected. A few seconds after the
*CONNECT’ message appears on your screen, QBox will start and send a logon screen. This
screen will identify the system, and provide some general info about the BBS and then ask
you to enter your first and last name (first name, a space, and last name). Note that it is not
necessary to capitalize the first letter of each, QBox will do this automatically, and will
recognize you on subsequent logons whether you capitalize or not.

QBox will search through its list of users for your name. If it recognizes you (meaning that
you’ve called before), it will ask you to enter your password. If it can’t find your name in the
list, it will ask if you are a new user or if you have perhaps entered your name incorrectly. If
you're a new user, answer ’Y’. Qbox will greet you as a new user and ask which town you are
calling from. I would like to ask North American users of QBox-USA to enter their town or
city followed by their state or province. It’s nice to know what part of the country everyone is
calling from! The BBS will ask for confirmation of the town entered and then ask for the
password that you wish to use on this system. Your password keeps someone else from
logging on under your name. I won’t go into the subject of choosing passwords or their
security as that could also be another article. Qbox will ask you to reenter the password you
just typed so that it can verify that what you entered the first time was what you really
intended. Note that what you type is not displayed for security reasons. If the two don’t
match, you will have to start over entering a password.

For new users, there may be a questionaire displayed next asking you to enter some
information. Otherwise a message stating no questionaire today will be displayed.

Once your password has been verified, QBox will display some statistics about your call and
then display a bulletin. This bulletin is used to inform users of anything about the system that
the sysop wants users to know. It may detail new features, new files available, changes or just
news in general. At this point I should explain about a prompt that you will see at certain
points while using QBox. This is the More? (Y/n)’ prompt. Qbox will display this when it has
filled your screen and pauses to let you read. It is asking do you want to see more? You can
press *Y’ to see more or ’n’ to stop. You can also just press Enter which will be accepted as a
*y’. At any place in QBox where you see a prompt with a choice such as Y/n, the option that
is capitalized is the one that will be assumed if you just press Enter. Also, at almost any point
in the BBS, you can control the output of the BBS by pressing ’P” to pause the BBS, and ’S’ to
stop. If you have paused the BBS, just press any key to continue. If you have stopped the
output, you will be returned to the menu from where you came.

48

QBOX-USA - (CONT’D)

After the bulletin is displayed, QBox will scan the message areas for any new messages for
you, any new messages in any of the areas since your last call, and if there have been any new
files uploaded since your fast call. From here you will be presented with the main menu. You
can select any of the options on the main menu by pressing the letter in the brackets [ J. What
do all these options do? We’ll take each one individually and explain it.

Since the Mail and File options are a bit more involved and have menus of their own, we’ll
leave them for later and explain the others first.

Pressing "B’ for {BJulletin will redisplay the bulletin screen that you saw when you logged on.
Qbox will also scan the mail and file areas again for you.

[E]ditorial will display just that, an editorial written by (at least for now) me, the sysop.
Currently this a little history story about how and why we set up the BBS.

[Info will present you with a list of information items available on the system. Simply enter
the number of the item you wish to read or just press enter to quit this option. After the info
is presented, press enter to get back to the Info list and read another or quit back to the main
menu. Some of the current info available is a list of other known QL/QDOS BBS systems, a
list of newsletters & magazines supporting the QL and QDOS and a list of the hardware and
software used on QBox-USA.

[S}tatistics gives you a report of your status such as how long you’ve been online this session,
how much me you're allowed per day, the time you have left, the last time you logged on and
the number of times you've called this sytem.

[Goodbye is what you use to log off the system. It will ask for confirmation that you really
wish to leave and ica, ask if you wish to leave the sysop a message. A logoff screen will be
presented and the times that you logged on and logged off shown. Please use the Goodbye
option to log off rather than just hanging up. Logging off properly will ensure that your
statistics on the BBS and messages that you’ve read are recorded properly. [t will also ensure
that the BBS resets itself for the next caller. If you simply hang up, it will take the BBS a
while to realize that you're not there anymore and needlessly ties up the system preventing
someone else from using it. Every sysop realizes that there will be occasional problems due to
a bad phone connection or a hardware or software problem or crash on your end (or even
mine!) that will cause you to be disconnected improperly. Don’t worry about it if it happens.
But please, always try and log off properly! There! I’ve said please! (Sysop’s everywhere will
appreciate it!)

[C}hange user settings takes you to a screen showing your current settings and a menu of
items that you can change to customize the way that QBox presents itself to your system. This
will also allow you to change your password if you wish. Press the letter of the setting you
wish to change. City and password are self explanatory, width is the number of characters per
line across your screen you wish and terminal lines is the number of lines down the screen.
These should be set to match the terminal software you are using. Usually the default settings
are fine for most QL terminal programs. Once you get more accustomed to using the system
you may wish to save time by turning off the menus, select help level to do this. There are
three levels of help; full menus, brief menus, and no menus. More will toggle the More
prompt on and off. If off, QBox will not pause at the end of a screen but will continue
displaying until the end. You can still control the output using the P and S keys as explained
earlier. If you’ve made some changes and decide you don’t want to change them, press R to
return without updating anything. If you're satisfied with your changes, press Q and the
changes will be saved and take effect. 46

QBOX-USA - (CONT'D)

[U]sers will allow you to search for a name to see if that person is a user on thi
can also get a list of all the users if you wish. The list will show the name, city,
and time of each users last logon.

system. You
and the date

[A]nswer questionaire will, (if there is currently a questionaire set up), display the same
questionaire you would see if you were a new user logging on for the first time.

[Y jell is an option used to call the sysop. It will sound a beeper on the QL running the BBS
to call the sysops attention. Please note that the sysop can control whether or not the beeper
will sound. If | am going to be nearby the BBS and won't mind an interruption, J will turn it
on, However if you try to Yell at 3 AM my time or when | am at work, chances are very good
[ won't hear it! (It’s turned off!) If the beeper is turned off or the sysop doesn’t respond, you
will get a message saying ‘Sysop not present’. If he does, you will enter ‘Chat’ mode. In this
mode, anything that the sysop types on his keyboard will also show up on your screen and vice
versa for anything that you type. An electronic conversation!! The sysop can also initiate the
chat. You will see a message on your screen saying Sysop breaking in for a chat’. When the
chat is ended (only the sysop can end the chat), you will be returned to the main menu. You
may have to press any key to get the menu redisplayed.

{V]ersion will simply display the revision level of the Qbox BBS software running. We are
currently using QBox version 1.191.

Pressing ’M’ for [MJail will take you to the message section. There are currently seven
message areas on QBox-USA, each with a different subject or category. In these areas you
can exchange messages (mail) with other users. Ask a question about that new software or
hardware you just got and need help with, leave a note about a programming problem, or just
make a comment about the QL world in general. Two of the areas are local, in other words
they exist only on QBox-USA. The others are known as echomail areas. Echomail is a system
where messages are echoed or passed between BBS’s allowing your messages to be seen by a
far greater number of users than they would normally be seen by. A message left by you in
one of the echo areas will be echoed among other BBS’s carrying the same echo. A reply or
message to you entered on another BBS will be seen by you on this BBS. The two local mail
areas on QBox-USA are NOT echoed and messages entered here will only be seen by
someone calling QBox-USA directly.

When you enter the mail area you will be in the area you were in the last time you called or
area #1 if this is your first call. The area number and name will be displayed along with two
numbers showing the last message number you have read and the total number of messages in
this area. QBox will also scan the area and report (by message #) of any new messages to you,
old messages to you and messages you have entered. A sub menu of options in the mail area
is displayed next. To read a specific message, simply enter its number and press enter and it
will be displayed. Other commands are explained below:

[A]rea change allows you to change message areas. Enter the area you wish to go to, or enter
a’?’ to see a list of available areas.

{N]ext will display the next message (by number) after the last one that you have read. Note
that the last message # read will change as you read messages.

[P]revious will do the opposite and show one message before the last one you read. Note that
this will also change the last message read #.

50

QBOX-USA - (CONT'D)

Also note that by using either of these two commands, you can continue reading in the same
direction by simply pressing enter.

[.|Current will redisplay the last read message for you.

|-] and [+] allow you to read either the previous or next reply to the current message (if there
is one) rather than reading messages sequentially using Next or Previous, above.

[C] for read [CJontinuous will simply display each message in order without stopping after
each one. This is handy to use if your communications software lets you open a capture or log
file. Open the file just before you select this command and all the messages will sent without
stopping. When it finishes, close your file. You can then log off and read the messages at
your leisure without being online (and running up your phone bill). Note that this command
will send messages in the same direction as you have been reading messages (Next or
Previous, as above).

{L]ist will present a brief account of the messages by showing the message number, the date it
was entered, who it’s from, who it’s to, and the subject. You can select the starting number to
list from or press enter for the current last read message.

[YJour mail will rescan the mail area and redisplay for you the message numbers of new
messages to you, old messages to you and messages you have entered.

[D]elete allows you to delete a message that you have entered. To be deleted, the message
must be the current last read message and have been entered by you. For obvious reasons
you cannot delete a message entered by someone else.

[Statistics and [G]oodbye are the same commands as in the main menu.
[Qluit will take you out of the mail area and back to the BBS’s main menu.

[EJnter message does just that, lets you enter a new message. QBox will print who the
message is from and fill in your name for you. Next you will be asked for the name of the
user you are sending the message to. If you are entering a message in one of the echo areas,
the name will be accepted as is, so be careful of the spelling, otherwise the user may not be
notified that there is a message for him. When entering a message in a local message area, the
name will checked against the list of users on the system. If the name is not found, you will be
given some choices: Abort the message entry, retry entering the name, ignore the warning (if,
for example, you wanted to enter a message addressed to: all), or to see the user list to see
how the name is spelled. After this, if you are in a local area, you will be asked if this is to be
a private message (only readable by the person it’s addressed to, note: the sysop can also read
private messages). Private messages are not allowed in the echo areas. Next you are asked
for the subject of the message. You can then begin entering your message. Note the prompt
from the BBS, that words will wrap automatically and to press enter on an empty line to
indicate that you are done.

When done entering a message you can {Llist the message to proofread it, [A]bort the
message entry, change the name of the person it’s [T]o, change the sub{JJect, change the
[Private status (local only), [C]ontinue entering the message, [E]dit a line, [I]nsert a line,
[D]elete a line or lines, or [S]ave the message. The message will not be put on the system
until you select the Save message option. You can use any of the above options to get your
message looking the way you want before actually placing it in the mail area for others to
read.
5}

QBOX-USA - (CONT'D)

{Replying to a message is very similar to entering a ncw message. You will see the same
prompts and have the same options. The BBS will offer a suggested name for the "To user?’
prompt and for the subject prompt. The name will be the name of the person who wrote the
message that you are replying to and the subject will the same subject as the original message.
You can accept these suggestions by pressing enter at each, or you can enter your own. There
is one additional option when replying. You can quote text from the original message if you
wish. This might be used to make sure that your reply is understood by having some (or all) of
the original message as a part of your reply. If you do select the quote option, all of the
original message will placed at the start of your reply with a ’>’ character at the beginning of
every line signifying the original text. You can then edit the lines as necessary and add your
reply.

From the Main menu you can press °F’ for access to the [File areas. The file areas contain
many programs that you can download. Note that a download is from the BBS to your
computer. Uploads (from your computer to the BBS) are also gladly accepted! When you
enter the file area, it’s number and name will be shown. The name is simply the general
category of the files contained in this area. There are currently the following areas on
QBox-USA: General Files, Communications, Utilities, Archivers, Pointer Stuff, and
Emulators. A further menu of options available in the file areas is displayed.

[A]rea change allows you to change file areas. Simply enter the number of the area or a?’ to
see a list of available areas.

[Flile list will give you a listing of file titles, size in bytes and a short description of each
program available in this area.

[V]iew will let you look at a text file online without having to download it first. It will ask you
for the filename you wish to view. View only works on files that are text! These are usually
signified by an extension such as *_txt’.

[S]tatistics, |QJuit and |G]oodbye are the same as explained earlier.

Pressing ’D’ for |DJownload will start the download procedure. You will be asked to choose a
protocol. QBox currently supports Xmodem, SEAlink and Telink transfer protocols. Your
terminal software will need to support at least one of these in order to download files. If you
select Xmodem you will be asked to enter the name of the file you wish to receive. Since
SEAlink and Telink allow multiple files to be transferred (batch), you can enter more than
one name. As you enter the name (be careful of spelling, use the File list command to see
how the names are spelled), the BBS will display it’s size in bytes and an estimated transfer
time based on your connection baud rate. For batch protocols, simply press enter at a
filename? prompt to indicate no more files. The BBS will then prompt you to start
downloading now and instruct you on how to cancel the transfer if necessary. At this point
you should start the download portion of your terminal software. Depending on your
software, you should see some type of progress report as the transfer proceeds. After the
transfer has completed you will be returned to the File menu.

[U]pload will allow you to send a file from your system to the BBS. Please do not upload
commercial or copyrighted programs (unless you own the copyright and wish to place the
program in the public domain). You will be asked to choose a protocol and the amount of
disk space available on the system for uploads will be shown. QBox will then ask for the
filename or names if a batch protocol was selected. After you enter this you will be prompted
to begin the transfer from your end and how to cancel if you wish. After the transfer has

ae

QBOX-USA - (CONT’D)

completed the BBS will ask you to enter a short description of the file or files you just
uploaded (79 characters maximum).

Just a few more general notes on using QBox-USA: First, for doing file transfers using
Xmodem, QBox requires 128 byte blocks. It cannot (currently) handle Xmodem 1K byte
blocks, Please make sure that your terminal software is set for 128 byte blocks if using
Xmodem for file transfers. Second, the BBS has a three minute inactivity timeout. This
means that if the BBS detects no response from you after waiting three minutes, it will
disconnect you and reset for the next caller. Don’t wait too long while deciding what to do
while online. (Hopefully this article will prevent this by explaining what all those commands
do!).

Third, | have modified the BBS software so that it will send the "ENQ’ character at logon.
What this means is that if your terminal software supports an auto logon sequence by
responding to the °ENQ’ you can automate logging on to QBox-USA. Fourth, once you have
logged on to a QBox system for the first time, if you do not log on again within 30 days, your
name will be automatically deleted from the system. Once you log on the second time, your
name will only be removed if you do not log on for over 90 days.

Finally, | hope this article will prompt you to give QBox-USA a try! If you do call, please
leave me or my co-sysop, Don Walterman, a message. Let us know what you think of the
system. Let me know what you think of this article. Comments, criticism, and suggestions are
always welcome!

QBox-USA can be reached at 810-254-9878. (Detroit, Michigan area). 24 hours a day.
300/1200/2400 baud. A new high speed modem (up to 14400 baud) should be online soon.

MECHANICAL DESIGN ANALYSIS CONSULTANTS
254 Walnut Street Beaver Dam WI 53916

GLEN E. SMELCER Telephone
Chief Design Analyst 414 887 0250

Many Mainframe Computer Programs are written in FORTRAN. Now MeDAC can
translate your favorite FORTRAN programs (up to 512K) to run on the QL.

Send us the LISTING and a SAMPLE OUTPUT. We will RECODE it to a BINARY
code version on Micro-Cartridge that will create simular output on a QL.

Note: Typical cost runs $65.00 (US) per 56 line listing page of FORTRAN.

53

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COMING SOON

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released "QUBIDE" IDE interface for the QL.

We ship worldwide, please specify shipping method, POST or UPS.

TELEPHONE: 800 228 0308 FAX: 714 961 0491

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA - Mel LaVerne

QUICK MANDELBROT III

DILWYN
JONES
COMPUTING

Quick Mandelbrot III is the latest upgrade to the program.
Among the updates are an increase in maximum iterations
to 511 (for Gold Card users), addition of Mode 4 operation,
and some code changes in the interests of more speed.

The program comes with a manual of 15 pages (well, actually
16, but the last page is merely an acknowledgement). The
manual is simply but adequately written ; if one just heeds the
admonition "When all else fails, read the instructions !", there should
be no difficulty in running the program.

QM Ii is completely menu-driven. The initial menu (F5 Menu) offers the choice of nine
items, five of which are entries to sub-menus. The remaining four entries allow toggling
Function between the Mandelbrot and Julia sets, toggling Multitask on or off, an
opportunity to Restart, and, finally, the sometimes welcome Stop.

From the initial menu, you may select Accuracy to set the number of iterations to any
value from 7 to 511 in increments of eight. The higher values were added for Gold Card
users. If you elect to go for the high end, most likely there’ll be plenty of time for a spot
of tea!

The File sub-menu _ gives entry to Delete, Load, or Save File sub-sub-menus. If Save is
selected, you may Save the screen in a form suitable for further processing by QM III or
Export the screen as a standard screen file (reloadable to 131072 with LBYTES).
Finally, you may Quit, which simply returns to the previous level.

When I first ran QM UI, I wondered “Where do I find PLOT’ ?” After some fumbling
and (perish the thought !) READING THE INSTRUCTIONS, I found it Select
Magnify. This gives access to Location (information on current position and size of the
area to be analyzed), Rectangle (places a movable, resizeable rectangle defining the
section to be selected), and Values.

Values, in turn, permits me to set the Real and Imaginary coordinates and Size of the
square to be examined. If Function has been defined as the Julia set, coordinates of the
selected point are picked here. Even better, I find here the long-sought magic word
"Plot".

If Rectangle is selected, the box defining the area to be examined may be moved about
the screen with the Arrow keys, enlarged with the Backslash key, or reduced with the
Space Bar. When you are satisfied with size and location, pressing "M” wil compute the
chosen area at full screen size. “Plot” is not needed here.

From the File sub-menu, a Device may be Formatted, its Directory obtained, or a screen
sent to an Epson-compatible printer. You may also Load or Delete files or Save the
current screen. Finally, Quit returns you to the FS Menu.

Occasionally, you will find that the ever-present F5 Menu box interferes with your view
of the screen. Your remedy is two-fold. Selecting Move Menu allows you to place the

55

QUICK MANDELBROT III - (CONT'D)

box in a less objectionable location. If this is not sufficient, the Escape key will
temporarily remove the menu from the screen. Space or Enter returns the menu.

The final option selectable from the main menu is Display. This leads to three further
choices: Mode, Color, and Black.

Selecting Mode toggles operation between Mode 4 and Mode 8. I find that Mode 4 gives
a generally crisper picture than Mode 8. Unfortunately, with the better definition goes a
penalty: twice the running time of Mode 8.

The Color (well, "Colour", if you insist) option toggles between Normal and BDM (the
Binary Decomposition Method). Normal ordinarily selects colors MOD 4 or 8. BDM
tends to merge large areas away from the actual set. The manual does not recommend
using BDM with the Julia set

The Black option determines whether all points calculated as black will be so colored or
whether only points in the selected Set will be black. I find the latter choice preferable
in that it eliminates the ambiguity inherent in allowing non Set points to be colored
black.

Despite the rather lengthy description above, I have found QM III to be quite easy to use
(especially after reading the manual !). The program has extensive error trapping,
making it difficult, if not impossible, to do anything really foolish. At least, | haven't
been able to get lost for long.

Generally, the Escape key will get you out of a tight spot, returning you to a prior menu.
Where Escape doesn’t work, such as in a request for a file or device name, entering a oull
name (simply pressing Enter) generates a brief error message and returns to the previous
menu.

So much for the mechanics of the thing. How well does it do its job ?_ Any program, even
one written in SuperBasic, can do the job to the required precision. However, in the case
of Basic, you might find a calendar to be appropriate as a timing device.

I have run some limited comparisons between QM III and Mandelspeed (from DP’s
QMaths2, reviewed in IQLR 3-5). "The Beauty of Fractals", Peitgen & Richter (P&R),
was as my source of pictures and data. Specifically, Map 45, page 86, was used for the
Mandelbrot Set and Figure 4, page 10, for the Julia Set. Input data were obtained from
the tables on page 193.

The two screens presented on the next page were computed with Mode = 8, Color =
Normal, and Black = Set. Accuracy (number of iterations) was 199.

The first screen shows the portion of the Mandelbrot set in Map 45 as drawn by QM III.
I consider the agreement with Map 45 to be excellent. Computing time required was 9:25
(565 seconds). The corresponding time for Mandelspeed was 12:40 (760 seconds).

The next screen displays the Julia Set from Figure 4 of P&R. It corresponds to the point
-0.12 + 0.74i on the Mandelbrot Set. Once again, the agreement with the figure in P&R
is excellent. Computing time was 2:06 (126 seconds). This time, Mandelspeed took only
50 seconds for the same Set.

56

QUICK MANDELBROT III - (CONT'D)
NE a ; : Sy
=

(Screen #1)

(Screen #2)

Final judgement ? QM III is easy to use, seems virtually fool-proof, has a readable
manual, does a good job, and is reasonably speedy. No calendar timing here. | like it;
and besides, at 15 pounds Sterling, the price is right If you enjoy exploring the
complexities of the Mandelbrot and/or Julia sets, if you’re fascinated by the intricate
patterns generated by the simple mathematics used, then QM Il] could take you on an
endless journey. af

MIRACLE in NEWPORT II

AN OPEN INVITATION TO ALL QL/QDOS USERS

As mentioned in our last issue, IQLR will be sponsoring the second annual North American
QL/QDOS get-together on Saturday the 14th of May 1994. All who were present at
MIRACLE in NEWPORT 93 will attest that it’s much more than a computer show. It’s more
i a happening, starting days before as people arrive and lasting a couple of days after the
show.

BASE OF OPERATIONS

The base of operations will be the motel where our European friends will be staying, as the
rates are the best to be had in the Newport area, we suggest you make your reservations
within the next three or four weeks. Please note the following information:

MOTEL6 International Reservations Tel: 505 892 8667

249 Connell Highway Rates per Day (single) $38.07 US (incl. taxes)
Newport, RI 02840 USA Rates per Day (double) $42.55 US (incl. taxes)
Reservations Tel: 401 848 0600 Please State : your with the IQLR group

If by chance you don’t make a reservation in time fear not, there is in excess of 2,000 hotel
and motel accommodations in the area including where the show will be held.

SHOW VENUE

Due to popular demand for a longer show, it became necessary to change the location of this
years show as the Salvation Army has a long time commitment with AA that could not be re-
scheduled. The new Venue is the MEETING ROOM at:

HOWARD JOHNSON LODGE
351 West Main Road (the main route into Newport)
Middletown, RI 02840 USA
Tel: 401 849 2000
Day: Saturday 14 May 1994 Show Hours: 10:00 AM - 6:00PM

Vendors will have access to the Meeting Room starting at 8:00 AM.

SOCIAL EVENTS

One of the most talked about events last year was the DUTCH TREAT DINNER (you pay
for your own meal) held after the show. We’ve received a number of calls from people who
said they would like it repeated this year. Why tinker with success ?? The
DUTCH TREAT DINNER will be held at the same location as last year The NEWPORT
BEACH CLUB at 7:30 PM on Saturday the 14th of May 1994 ( the time difference will allow
the vendors to pack up and join us).

58

MIRACLE in NEWPORT II - (CONT’D)

The second event a BRUNCH (coffee and doughnuts) will be held on Sunday the 15th of
May 1994 at Motel 6 during the open house where you'll be able to mingle with the suppliers
and other QL users. The starting time will be 9:00 AM.

Besides the listed events, many of us had lunch, dinner and even cocktails together sharing
many a good time last year. We expect the same this year, participation is up to you.

DEMONSTRATORS

Scheduled to attend and demonstrate their latest wares will be Stuart Honeyball of Miracle
Systems Ltd., Bill Richardson of W. N. Richarson & Co., Dilwyn and Janet Jones of Dilwyn
Jones Computing and Ron Dunnett of Qubbesoft P/D, all from the UK.

From North America will be Frank and Carol Davis of Update Magazine, Paul Holmgren of
Mechanical Affinity, Tim Swenson of the QL Hackers Journal, Don Walterman and John
Impellizzeri of Qbox-USA, Bob Gilder of the LIST group and Al Boehm of NESQLUG.

We expect that there may be additions to those named above, we know of others trying to
rearrange their schedules.

PRODUCTS and DEMOS

NEW products are expected to be available at the show include: SUPER GOLD CARD,
possibly the SCSI interface, the IDE interface, and ALL the latest SOFTWARE from the
major suppliers worldwide. We also expect a full compliment of standard QL hardware and
software.

Demos will include: a REAL TIME DIGITISER, a fully working BBS and a CLOUD

SIMULATION on a QL including lots of pretty screens. Of course talks will be given
explaining all the NEW products.

REGISTRATION and FEES

For those of you wishing to register in advance, the fee is $5.00 US, registration at the door
will be $7.00 US. Registration fees are per person with children under 14 free.

The fee for supplier tables will be $25.00 per table (6 to 8 ft. long) in advance, or $30.00 US
on the day of the show.

’ CLOSING REMARKS

If you plan to attend or have any questions, please contact: Bob Dy! at IQLR or telephone:
401 849 3805, we’ll be happy to help you any way we can. Why join us for a QL good time.

COME HELP US CELEBRATE THE QL’S 10TH BIRTHDAY

59

—_
The Town Crier

announces

27 March 1994 (SUNDAY)

QUANTA WORKSHOP: Bristol
Great Britain

23-24 April 1994 (SATURDAY/SUNDAY)

QUANTA AGM & WORKSHOP: Park Hotel
Grand Parade

(Quanta NE) Tynemouth
Great Britain

14 May 1994 (SATURDAY)

MIRICLE in NEWPORT II: Howard Johnson Lodge
351 West Main Road

| UPCOMING EVENTS

Contact: Bob Dyl Middletown, Rhode Island
| (US 401 849 3805) USA
| June or July 1994
| QL’S 10th BIRTHDAY SHOW: Brussells

Belgium

| we ee ae ee ee
'
4

60